Becoming You and Me
by Strawberry Shortcake123
Summary: Part one of Our Eternity trilogy. While escaping from the School, Max and Fang discover two strange experiments-- their children. Will the kids pull them together or push them apart? FAX. T to be safe.
1. Prologue

**Hey guys!**

**Well, a lot of thought went into whether or not I was going to write this… I had the idea, and briefly considered it, and then I decided to make it just a drabble, but somebody who reviewed the drabble (Number 46 in my drabble collection) said they could see it as a full-length story, so I started thinking about it, and… here it is.**

**IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THE SETTING: This is after MAX, but none of the Faxness happened in that book. At this point, the extent of Max and Fang's relationship is that he kissed her in a cave, she flew away, he kissed her one more time, on the dock, and she flew away again. So they're still in that it's-complicated stage in this story.**

**The title is partly based off the quote in the fourth book, and partly because… well, just read. : D**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride.**

I sat back in my cage, trying to appear half-asleep and disinterested in my surroundings. In the cage to the left of mine, Fang caught my eye and nodded very, very slightly. I reached my fingers through the bars to my right and tapped the back of Iggy's hand twice, letting him know our plan was in place.

_Angel? _I thought, looking at her across the aisle. _Everybody clear on what's going on?_

There was a pause, and then she thought, _Yep. We're all ready to go._

_Good._

A door creaked open, and I looked up to see two whitecoats coming toward us. They stopped in front of Fang's cage, and I resisted the urge to say something snide to them.

"Come on," one scientist said to Fang, kneeling down to unlock the cage and swing open the door. "You're up."

Fang crawled out of the cage without question, letting the whitecoats grab either one of his arms as he walked toward the doors-- slowly, and if you didn't know any better, you'd say dejectedly.

I motioned for the flock to get into position. We all quietly poised ourselves to make a break for it, and I started the count in my head. _Five… four… three… two…_

And then Fang was grabbing the IDs the whitecoats were wearing around their necks, one in each hand, and yanking, _hard_. They choked, trying to push Fang off, but he was too strong for them. While they were sputtering and gasping, he snapped the cord on one ID and ran over to the control pad on the wall. He quickly scanned the ID, and the buttons lit up.

"Run!" he yelled, and pressed the "Release This Wing" button. The flock and I launched out of our cages, taking off down the hallway towards Fang. All the other mutants in that room had gotten out, too, and were looking uncertain. If there was any time at all, I would have helped them escape with the rest of us.

We raced through room after room, desperately trying to find one with a window or exit where we could take off. We passed hundreds of awful experiments, set off multiple alarms, making the place sound like a concert times ten, and knocked out a couple dozen whitecoats before we found a window, just big enough to get us all through.

"Angel!" called Fang, smashing the glass with one good swing of his fist. "Go! Hurry!"

Angel jumped through the window, and a moment later I saw her rise again, snow-white wings stroking powerfully.

"Gazzy!"

I took a look behind me at the mutants in the room. These all looked pretty human. All kids, like us. It broke my heart, and I wished yet again that we had the time to save every one of these innocent little beings.

"Nudge!"

And then, two pairs of dark, serious eyes caught mine from across the room. There were two little kids with tiny wings extending from their backs, crammed into one small dog crate. They looked about three years old, one a boy and one a girl. The boy had sandy blonde hair and tan skin; the girl's hair tumbled down her back in black curls, and her skin had an olive tone to it.

"Iggy!"

Making one of my famous snap decisions, I sprinted across the room and knelt in front of the cage. The two kids stared at me, their dark eyes wide and scared. Even as the alarms clanged in the background, telling me that any moment now I'd be captured, I asked the shaking kids, "Can you talk?"

"Max! Max? Max, what the hell are you doing?"

In an instant Fang was at my side, grabbing my elbow and hauling me to my feet. "Are you insane?" he hissed. "Go jump out the window!"

I shook my head and lifted a shaky finger to point at the cowering kids in the cage at our feet. When he saw what I was pointing at, Fang's eyes widened, meaning he was stunned.

"Fang," I whispered. "It's-- _us_."

**Fun fact: Most of this was written while I was half-asleep. Impressive, huh? : )**

**Reviews are fabulous. : )**


	2. Chapter 1

**I just realized that I've written all these chapters and not included Total… so I'm saying now that he's just not in here… I always forget about him.**

**Disclaimer: I own the kids, that's it.**

"That was the stupidest thing you've ever done," Fang said.

I rolled my eyes, shifting the little girl in my arms. "Whatever, Fang."

It'd been about fifteen minutes since the two of us and the two kids had escaped from the School. We were now heading for the meeting place designated in case the flock got separated. Up until now, Fang and I had been ignoring each other as the twins-- that's what I was calling them, since they looked about the same age and were exactly the same size-- stared at us with wide, scared eyes.

"We were almost caught," he continued, and I resisted the urge to fly over to him and smack him upside the head. "That cage had some sort of special lock on it, and it cost us a lot of time."

"Okay, well, I'm sorry you're one of the few people on this earth who would say, 'Oh, there's my children I never knew existed, let's leave them in this evil science lab where they'll be tortured and possibly killed.'"

"How can we even be sure they're our kids?" Fang demanded, but it was half-heartedly. We both knew that the similarities between ourselves and the kids were too uncanny to be coincidental.

Deciding that the question wasn't worthy of an answer, I faced forward, shifting the girl once again. Her dark eyes were terrified as she looked at me, who could be evil for all she knew, and it made my heart break that the sight of me was doing this to a child. To _my_ child.

"It's okay," I whispered to her, low enough so that Fang couldn't hear. "I'm going to take care of you. You're safe with me."

The girl seemed to relax only slightly, but then her little fist closed around my sleeve. I smiled at her. "Do you have a name?"

She hesitated for about a second before weakly saying, "Seven."

I struggled not to let my rage show on my face. While the whitecoats tortured this little girl-- my _daughter_, for crying out loud-- they hadn't had the time to give her the simplest of human qualities: a name. _Seven_. You've got to be kidding me.

"Do you know his name?" I nodded at Fang and the boy he was carrying.

"Six."

So there you have it-- I discover that a bunch of mad scientists created mine and my best friend's children in test tubes, I rescue said children, and then find out they'll be responding to the names Six and Seven.

Ah, the life of a mutant bird kid.

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"Where were you guys? We were so worried!"

It was about forty-five minutes later, and we had located the flock. As soon as I landed in the cave, Nudge was pouncing on me, apparently not noticing that she was squishing a toddler.

"We looked behind us and you two just weren't there!" she rambled on. "We thought about waiting or going back in, but we figured you would know what you were doing so we left, but it was so scary, and--"

"It's okay, Nudge," I said, patting her back with one hand. "We're fine."

Nudge pulled away, and her eyes went wide as they spotted the little girl I was holding. Then they shifted behind me, where Fang was hanging back, still holding the boy. Angel and the Gasman were standing next to Nudge, and they looked confused, too, as they took it in.

"Why is nobody talking?" Iggy asked.

"Max and Fang brought back these little kids," Angel said quietly. "And-- they look just _like_ them."

"You guys…?"

"No." Fang spoke for the first time. He came up next to me and placed the little boy on the ground. I looked down at the huge, terrified eyes, and then reached for my son's little hand. "The School created our kids, and Max decided to be Supergirl and save them."

I glared at him. "Fang is being an idiot," I told the flock, although I was holding Fang's gaze. "Ignore him."

"So are they… staying with us?" Gazzy asked, eyeing the kids.

"Yes, they are," I said firmly. "These are my kids. And Fang's, as much as he doesn't want to admit it. All six of us are their family now. I want you guys to treat them like it, okay?"

Without waiting for or expecting an answer from anybody, I knelt down beside the little boy. The little girl was still on my hip; she seemed to have already accepted me pretty easily. "Hey."

The boy just looked at me, like the girl had done at first. I felt the rest of the flock watching me, but I focused on my son and smiled as brightly as I could manage. "We're not going to hurt you. We're nice people."

The suspicious, narrow-eyed look I got was enough like Fang's to make me momentarily speechless. Then I sighed, knowing that getting this boy to trust us wouldn't be as easy as it had been with the girl. I moved her off of my hip and placed her on the ground beside her brother. "There's, um, Seven," I told him. "You like Seven."

The two were obviously comfortable with each other, so I stood up. "Keep an eye on them," I told the others. Then I turned to Fang. "We need to talk."

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Outside the cave was a cliff, overlooking a valley. Fang and I sat down, our feet dangling over the edge. For a moment, we said nothing as I tried to find the right words. Then I began with, "So what do you think?"

"I think you're off your rocker."

Alright, then. "I just thought it was kind of my moral responsibility, Fang. Being their mother and all."

"Is that what you want?" Fang turned to look at me, fire in his dark eyes. "To play mommy and daddy? We're fourteen, Max, and on the run from people who want to kill us, if you haven't noticed. There's no time for that."

"We take care of the flock!" I protested. "How is this any different? In fact, we're more obliged to take care of the twins, since they're _actually_ ours."

"Plus," he went on, as if I hadn't even spoken. "I don't get you. You run off when I kiss you, and now you want to raise a couple of _kids_ together?"

My mouth dropped open, and I gave him a long, disbelieving look. All the love I'd felt towards him last time he kissed me seemed like a foreign language right now. "Is _that_ what this is about?" I stood up abruptly, then leaned down to talk right into his ear. "I'd rather have just about anybody else on this planet be the father of my children," I hissed. "You ass."

And then I spun on my heel and marched into the cave, feeling Fang's dark eyes on me but not daring to turn around.

**Review?**


	3. Chapter 2

**Okay, so I remember a reviewer asking about Max not sounding too hesitant about the twins, and wondering if we'd get to hear some deep thoughts on that… yup. Hit the nail on the head. Deep thoughts, coming right up! : P**

**And names. To whoever it was that asked that I please give them semi-normal names, you got that one right, too. Because… I think I'd feel weird naming a character, I don't know, Tree or something. Or… Poke. (Like Nudge?)**

**Anyway. Here, my friends, is another chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. Just the kids.**

That night, as I took watch, I became an emotional wreck.

My eyes were fixed on my two kids, fast asleep, curled protectively around one another. There, in the quiet, without anything else to think about, it had hit me: these were my _children_. I had a daughter, a son. I was a _mother_. And the person I thought was my best friend in the world was their father.

The whole thing with Fang was really getting to me, too, as I mulled over these thoughts. Up until now, if the whitecoats had come to me and asked who I wanted to father my test tube children, I would have said Fang. Even before he kissed me twice and made me start thinking about whether or not I liked him as more than a friend, he's who I would have chosen, simply because I trusted him more than anybody. But now that it'd happened, he obviously wasn't good father material.

Suddenly I was overcome with too many feelings all at once: fear at being a _real_ parent at fourteen, joy that I'd found my two kids alive, regret at arguing with Fang, distraught because said kids were only three and they'd have to live this life of running…

Tears started to well up in my eyes. Just when I thought my life couldn't be any more screwed up, this happened. I mean, I'd saved them, and I was glad. After only knowing them a few hours, I loved them. And even though I'd been taking care of the flock for years, this was different. It was like… the flock had parents out there somewhere. They may or may not ever reunite with them, but it was always a possibility. But these two were _mine_. I _was_ the parent.

My eyes fell on my daughter. As I watched, she shifted a little in her sleep, and mumbled something. Thinking she was having a nightmare, I started to get up to wake her. But then her face relaxed, and her face broke into the cutest freaking thing I'd ever seen-- a sweet, soft smile.

I took in her olive skin, her mess of dark curls, and thought of Fang. The tears started spilling over onto my cheeks, and all I wanted was his gentle hand on my shoulder, letting me know he was on my side, we were a team. What if we saved the world and Fang left me alone to deal with the kids? How could I stand to look at her every day?

_Enough of this_, I thought. Fang's backpack was laying near me-- how he'd managed to get it here, I had no idea-- and I reached for it, removing the laptop. I powered it up, and then started surfing baby naming websites. Because if you thought I was going to refer to my children as Six and Seven, you thought wrong.

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"Come on, guys! Time to get up!"

The flock started groaning and rolling over, as if to drown me out. I continued. "We're leaving in ten. We'll go find a town and buy some new backpacks and clothes, alright?"

They all agreed with varied levels of enthusiasm. I walked over to where my kids were still sound asleep and knelt next to the little boy, since he appeared to be the more difficult one.

Like father, like son.

"Come on," I murmured. "It's time to wake up."

His eyes slowly opened, and he sat up, giving me a hard look. I said, "Hi, honey." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Fang watching me carefully, but I ignored him. "Listen. We're here to _help_ you. I really love you. You call me Mommy, okay?"

He gazed at me, looking a little more open. Since he seemed to be giving me a chance, for now, I launched right into the next thing.

"Six isn't a very good name. I picked out another one for you, if you like it." Now he looked slightly curious. "Devin. Can I call you Devin?"

I had seen it the night before and started laughing in spite of myself. It meant 'descendant of the dark-haired one,' and even though it referenced Fang-- something not exactly a plus right now-- I loved the name, so that's what I chose.

Devin studied me, sizing me up. I felt a swell of pride-- he would make a great fighter.

"Yeah," he finally said. It was the first word he'd said since we rescued him. "That's okay."

I smiled at him. "Good." I patted him on the head and moved over so I was beside my daughter. Her eyes were open now, and she was rubbing them with her tiny fists. "Morning."

"Hi," she said, flashing a toothy grin.

I subconsciously began to untangle her curls with my fingers. "Sweetie, I want you to call me Mommy."

"Okay," she answered brightly. Just like that. No thinking about it, no stares like those I had gotten from Devin. See, she was easier to deal with. I know who she sure as heck _didn't_ get that from.

"And you need a different name," I went on. "Besides Seven. Would you like to be called Gracie?" Okay, so the flock and I didn't know much about religion. But finding these two kids, alive and healthy enough, was such a miracle that a name meaning "grace of God" just had to apply.

"Uh-huh." So agreeable. She may look like Fang, but on the inside…

By now, I could sense the whole flock pretending to be engrossed in other things, but really listening to me and the kids. Now, as I stood up, they all began carrying on awkward conversations that had obviously been halted for some time. From across the room, I caught Fang's eye and lifted my chin cockily into the air.

With only a few words, I had gotten both of those kids to trust me. I could do this alone. I could show him that I didn't need him, not at all.

Piece of cake.

**Aww, stupid Fang. I felt kind of bad writing him as a jerk this, but… I could see it.**

**I love reviews. Like, a LOT. More than Fang and Max love each other. : D**


	4. Chapter 3

**Okay, people, here's the deal with this: somebody was supposed to read this for me, because I had some doubts about it. And I think it got read, but I never got feedback from her. Which is fine, I think she's sick, but I'm just going to go ahead and post it. We'll see what the consensus is. If everyone hates it, I'll take it down and make adjustments. Cool?**

**Right. Happy reading!**

We were probably the oddest group of people that Wal-Mart had seen in a long time: eight filthy, mostly unrelated kids in tattered clothes and, in my kids' case, loose knee-length gowns. The good news is that by the time we got to the store, Nudge and Angel had latched onto Gracie and the Gasman and Devin were becoming fast friends, too.

When we got to the clothes, I stood right where the boys' and girls' sections merged, told everybody to make sure the clothes were practical, and watched the girls go one way and Iggy take the two boys the other. It didn't register that Fang didn't join the latter until I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

"Hey."

"Hello." His eyes were boring into the side of my head, but I refused to look at him.

"Max, I'm… sorry."

"Sorry isn't good enough, Fang. I wouldn't be able to raise the flock alone; why would I be able to handle two more little bird kids?"

He didn't answer, and I realized that I had just broken my commitment to _not_ let Fang know I needed him. As I tried to look unbothered, my gaze wandered over to Gracie, who was giggling as Nudge and Angel held up shirt after shirt in front of her. I was embarrassed to feel a pang of jealousy as I thought about how she didn't have even one quality of mine.

Fang moved closer to me so that our arms brushed. "She has your smile," he said quietly. Great-- even when I was mad at him he could see right through me, see all my worries and insecurities. Except that his soft voice immediately melted my anger, and I looked at my daughter, wondering if he was right.

"When you laugh, that's how you look," Fang went on. "And last night, I was awake and I saw her smile in her sleep… and you do that too."

"I do?"

"Yeah."

I turned to look at him. "You seem to know a lot about this."

Fang grinned, one of those rare ones that light up my world. "My watches aren't entirely about looking out for enemies, Max."

Before I even realized what I was doing, I had wrapped my arms around Fang, pulling him into a hug. I rested my cheek on his shoulder, and after a long hesitation, he slowly rubbed between my wings.

We stayed that way for a long moment. The noise of the store was only a dull hum to me, as the world seemed to melt away until it was only me and Fang, together again, a team. The way it should be.

"Did you give them middle names?"

I furrowed my brow, but didn't move my head. I hadn't even thought about it; none of us had middle names. "No."

"Can I do it?"

Now I looked at him, my arms still locked around his waist, and searched his face. He was completely serious. I shrugged. "Sure."

Fang nodded and hesitated only a second before saying, "Her name's Gracie Maximum."

I stared.

"I know you want some of you in her," he said. One of his arms was still wound around my back, and he squeezed me a little. "And I want some of me in him. So his name's Devin Nick."

"Not Devin Tooth?" I teased.

"Nah." Fang grinned again-- that was two in five minutes-- and started sort of rocking from side to side. I smiled back and copied his motions, and then we were swaying together, almost dancing.

Our moment was interrupted when Nudge shrieked, "Gracie, no!" I spun out of Fang's embrace to see that Gracie was standing with her wings out, flailing them clumsily. There was nobody else around except for two preteen girls, who were staring.

"Honey," I whispered, loud enough for them to hear, as I hurried toward Gracie. "You don't need to put your wings on yet. The costume party's _next_ week."

I pressed her wings back into her back through the slits in her gown, trying not to hurt her. She cried out in pain anyway, though, and I bit my lip. When her wings were folded, I shrugged off my jacket and draped it over her shoulders. It was huge on her; the slits were too low for her to get her wings through.

The girls seemed to have fallen for my ill-conceived cover-up story and moved on to another rack. I breathed out in relief and turned Gracie by the shoulders to face me. "Sweetie, our wings are secret, okay? Nobody can know we have them. If people find out we have wings, they'll… do bad things to us. Do you understand?"

She nodded, her eyes downcast. "I'm sorry, Mommy."

Hearing that last word made my throat close up, and I tried desperately to hold in my tears. I stroked her hair and said, "It's okay. You didn't know."

It was then that I noticed Fang, hovering a few feet away with his hands in his pockets, looking slightly uncomfortable. I scooped up Gracie, resting her on my hip. Then I walked over to stand in front of him, well aware of Nudge and Angel staring at my back, and smiled.

"Gracie, this is your daddy," I said quietly.

Dark eyes met dark eyes. Then Gracie grinned-- I felt my heart swell as I thought about Fang saying she had my smile-- and reached one hand out to him, keeping the other wrapped around my neck.

A long moment passed, and then Fang slowly put his pinky in her tiny palm, letting her squeeze it. One corner of his mouth quirked up, and even though it was just a tiny one-- I am _not_ turning into a softy-- a tear did creep down my cheek.

**If you've read Sick Days-- there was a reference to that in this chapter-- anybody catch it?**

**Please tell me what you think… review!**


	5. Chapter 4

**Okay, I would like to say good job to Rowena of Naxen, who is one of my most faithful reviewers, because she understood the Sick Days reference last chapter. : D**

**And… here's the next chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I own Gracie and Devin and nothing else.**

Gracie may have accepted Fang and I without much of a fight, but Devin was going to be more of a chore. He responded to his name, but he didn't call me Mommy, and when I tried to introduce Fang as Daddy, he narrowed his eyes in a look I knew so well.

We left the Wal-Mart with new backpacks loaded with food, clothes and some money from the ATM, using the Max Ride card. Then, with Devin in Fang's arms and Gracie in mine, we walked behind the Wal-Mart and took off into the air, one by one.

For the next several hours, we flew. There was no real destination; just east, far away from the School. Somewhere in Colorado, around five in the evening, we decided to camp out high up in a mountain for the night. While the flock set up and the twins went off to one side of the clearing to play, Fang and I stood together and contemplated our next move.

"It complicates things, obviously," I said quietly, crossing my arms over my chest to shield against the cool mountain breeze.

"Obviously," Fang repeated.

"First we have to get them to trust us," I went on. "I'm pretty sure Gracie does, but as far as Devin goes, we've got our work cut out for us."

"Yeah," he replied, back to being the One-Word Wonder.

I rolled my eyes. "What about attacks? They appear to only be about three years old."

Fang paused, thinking. Then: "They have to learn to fly."

"Fly?" To be honest, it hadn't even crossed my mind. But now that he brought it up, it seemed painfully obvious.

"Yeah, fly. Gracie had her wings out but she couldn't even flap them right, remember? If we teach them a survival skill, maybe it'll break the ice with Devin, and he'll see that we want to help them."

I looked over at Fang. He wrinkled his brow, as if to ask what I was thinking.

I just grinned at him, thinking he was going to be a good dad.

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"Okay," I told Gracie, pushing down on her shoulders so she wouldn't go anywhere. "Now flap your wings like I just showed you. There, good job. Flap harder. And…" I took my hands off her shoulders and she rose steadily, straight up and down. I waited for her to get about six feet off the ground, and then I motioned for her to slowly descend like she'd just seen me do. It was instinct; she did it perfectly.

"Good job, honey!" I beamed and ruffled her hair, and she grinned back at me. Then I turned to Devin, standing with his little arms crossed, giving me the same look he'd been giving me since we'd met him. Behind him, Fang was standing in the same way, except his gaze was considerably less hostile. Despite most of their physical features being so different, right then they looked exactly the same.

"Your turn, Devin," I told him, extending a hand. He just looked at it.

"I can fly!" Gracie squealed, jumping up and down. "You try it too," she told her brother, and nudged him forward. Slowly, Devin extended his wings and shuffled over to where I'd had Gracie stand.

I placed my hands on his shoulders. "Can you flap like Gracie just did?"

Devin looked confused for a second, and then his eyes flickered to Gracie and recognition flashed in them. _Maybe he does trust us_, I thought. _Maybe he's just getting used to having new names and everything._

Wordlessly, he moved his wings, and I said, "Good. Now harder." I released him and did the same thing: let him rise, then gestured for him to come down. Just like Gracie and the rest of us bird kids, it was an instinct, and he did it beautifully.

I looked expectantly at Fang, and he stepped forward, sticking his hands in his pockets. He had wanted me to give the kids their flying lesson while he stood by, but I talked him into helping so that they learned their survival skill from both of us. So now he was going to help them fly across short distances.

"Daddy's going to help you guys now," I said. Gracie nodded happily, her curls bouncing around her shoulders. Devin fixed a calm gaze on Fang. I turned to him and quietly said, "I'm going to check on the flock, okay?"

He nodded, and I started back to the flock's camp, a hundred or so feet away. Nudge, Iggy and the Gasman were gathered around the fire, starting to cook some of our food, but Angel was standing at the edge of camp, waiting for me.

"Hey, honey." I knelt down in from of her. "What's going on?"

"Are you and Fang in love?"

"Um…" I blanked, staring at her wide-eyed innocence. I thought about Fang kissing me, and me running away. Were we? "No, sweetie."

"Really?" Angel cocked her head to one side. "Because I think you are."

"Why would you think that?"

"I told you, Max," she said patiently, as if she were a teenager talking to a six-year-old, rather than it being the other way around. "Fang _loves_ you. And you know you love him too."

I bit my lip and thought about our last kiss, on the dock. Yes, it had been amazing, and yes, I thought I was in love with him. But our friendship meant the world to me. If anything happened to it, I couldn't take it.

"Nothing will happen to your friendship," Angel said. "You love each other too much!"

I smiled sadly. "It's not that simple, sweetie."

The kid would not let up. "If you're not in love, why do you want Gracie and Devin to call you Mommy and Daddy? Mommies and daddies are always in love, right?"

"Usually," I said. "But Fang and I are doing this so these two kids can have their parents. It's what we all want. Don't you think that if their real parents are available, they should get to be with them?"

Angel thought for a second, and then shrugged. "I guess."

"Okay." I stood up and reached down to ruffle her hair, then started to walk over to the others.

"Max?"

I turned around. "Yeah?"

"Don't forget about Fang, though. Believe me. He _does_ love you."

**Review?**


	6. Chapter 5

**Longest chapter yet, guys, yay! It's information, but, you know, _important_ information. And not too terribly boring, either. In fact, there's a bit of Fax-- you might kinda like it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride!**

The next day, we were standing on my mom's doorstep. Fang and I didn't know whether we should go ahead with the mission or take a break for a little while, so we decided to crash at my mom's for a few days while we thought it through. Now, though, it had just occurred to me that I'd be introducing her to her grandchildren, and my stomach was flip-flopping around.

I extended my trembling hand toward the doorbell, telling myself to just ring it, to rip it off like a Band-Aid. My hand paused about an inch from the doorbell, and I stared at it. Just as I was about to force myself to press it, an olive hand grabbed mine and brought it down.

I looked at Fang. Devin was on his hip, looking more comfortable with being there than usual. He was beginning to trust Fang; it must be the strong and silent characteristic they shared.

He squeezed my hand, and when I tried to tug it away, he pulled me closer to his side. The flock was watching us, so Fang leaned down and talked right into my ear, low enough so that only the two of us could hear. "Max, calm down."

"Calm down? My mom is about to meet my kids _I_ didn't know existed, and you want me to calm down? Listen, you don't--"

"Max." Fang released my hand to put his on my shoulder. "Your mom will accept them just as easily as she accepted you."

I took a deep breath, held it, and exhaled slowly, shifting Gracie to my other hip. She giggled and stuck a finger in her mouth. "You're right. Let's do this."

I turned back to the door and rang the bell. Ten seconds later, I heard the lock turning, and then my mom's smiling face was in front of me. "Max!" she exclaimed, pulling me into a tight hug. She let go almost immediately, though, as she felt Gracie being squished between us. Mom's eyes widened as she looked at my daughter. "She looks… just like Fang…"

Then she glanced at Fang, and saw Devin, the spitting image of me except with Fang's eyes, and her jaw dropped.

"I'll explain inside," I said hurriedly, before she totally freaked out. Mom nodded and turned around, stepping back into the house. I followed, Fang right behind me, then the rest of the flock.

"Is Ella at school?" I asked as we all sat around in the living room. Fang and I sat on the couch together, our kids on our laps, and Iggy and Nudge squeezed in beside us. Angel and Gazzy sat on the floor by our feet. My mom nodded and slowly sat down in the chair across from us. Her eyes shifted from my face to Fang's and back again. Finally, she said, "So what's all this about?"

"A week or so ago, the School captured us," I said carefully. I heard Mom take a sharp intake of breath when I said the world 'School.' "As we were escaping, we found a cage with… them in it." I gestured to Gracie and Devin. "And we figured, obviously they're ours, so we rescued them, and… here we are."

"Oh, wow," she said, putting a hand to her mouth. "Wow."

An uncomfortable silence followed while we waited for her next reaction. On either side of me, I felt Fang and Iggy both tense. Then Mom smiled at us, and I relaxed. "Can I meet my grandchildren?"

"Sure," I said, surprised, and put Gracie on the ground. She got a scared look on her face and looked up at me, grabbing onto my hand. I gently shook her off and nodded at my mom. "Go talk to your grandma, Gracie," I said. "She's nice, too. She won't hurt you."

Gracie shook her head and hid her face in my knee. I sighed and stood up, scooping her up and crossing the room to dump her on Mom's lap.

"Oh, Max, I don't want to scare her," she said, as Gracie stared at her in fear, then reached toward me.

I stepped back and shook my head. "Just be nice to her for a minute, and she'll trust you."

Mom looked doubtful, but leaned toward Gracie anyway and started talking quietly to her. After just some nice words-- "You call me Grandma, Gracie. You're so cute, you look just like your daddy"-- she asked, "How old are you?" in that way adults have when asking questions to little kids.

My first thought was that Gracie wouldn't know, and I opened my mouth to say so, but then she grinned toothily and held up three fingers. I immediately glanced at Fang, and he nodded, meaning he'd seen it too. I thought back, but couldn't remember telling either of the kids that I was saying they were three years old. Apparently, the whitecoats were keeping them more up-to-date with their personal data than they had with the six of us.

"Three?" Mom said, in that same voice, like she was impressed that she was three years old. _Maybe impressed that she survived in that hell hole for three years_, I thought dryly.

"Uh-huh."

"Well, you're just such a big, pretty girl," Mom cooed, and I tried not to gag. I loved these kids, both my own and the flock, but I never talked to them like that. It was just… not me.

"Uh-huh, and Daddy said my wings were pretty," Gracie said. My eyebrows shot up, and I looked back over at Fang. He smiled, just a little, and looked down at the top of Devin's head.

I walked back over and sat down beside him again. "Full of yourself much?" I asked, smirking, since Gracie's wings were just like his.

Fang shrugged. "Nope. Just telling it like it is. My wings kick ass; that's one lucky kid to get them."

I laughed, tilting my head back, and he chuckled. Our eyes met, and his were full of something familiar and foreign at the same time. For that one moment that seemed to stretch into forever, it seemed like the gaze was the only thing happening in the universe, and--

"Devin."

I broke eye contact, my face flaming, to look at Gracie, standing in front of Fang and tugging on Devin's arm.

"Go talk to Grandma," she told him.

He took a long look at her, then at Mom, narrowing his eyes. When he didn't budge from his spot on Fang's knee, Gracie huffed and forcibly pulled him down. As Devin tumbled to the floor, I saw a change in his usually stoic expression-- his eyes turned wild, even fearful.

_Oh my gosh_, I realized suddenly. _It's the School. Those scum made him afraid of anybody who hurts him at all. Oh, man._

Devin shoved Gracie off of him, and she kicked him in retaliation. There was one irresponsible second where I thought about my kids being good fighters, and then Fang and I lunged forward, prying them off of each other. I ended up with Devin in my arms. I expected him to wriggle out of them, but he shocked me by burying his face in my neck and starting to cry.

At first I didn't know what to do. Gracie had been so bubbly, and he'd been so emotionless, that it hadn't even occurred to me they were normal toddlers who would cry and throw fits from time to time. Then my motherly instincts kicked in, and I embraced Devin, rubbing his back and murmuring in his ear.

Over his shoulder, I saw Fang's dark eyes on me as he held Gracie's arm. Behind him was my mom, biting her lip as she watched. When I had finally calmed Devin down, she said, "Max, can I talk to you and Fang?"

"Sure," I said, walking over to Iggy and placing Devin in his lap. "Watch everybody, Ig."

"Got it," he said, and Fang picked up Gracie, placing her on the other end of the couch, away from Devin, just in case. Then Fang and I followed my mom into the kitchen.

Mom took a deep breath. "Look, I don't want to tell you guys what to do, but are you sure you can handle this?"

I opened my mouth to protest, but she continued. "I know you've taken care of the flock, but… these are _little_ kids, Max. And… they're really _yours_."

Fang shot a glance at me, expecting me to react poorly, but shockingly enough, I didn't. This was exactly what had gone through my own mind. I sighed and leaned back on the counter. "I know. And I feel really… stressed about it. But I don't know what else to do."

Fang came closer to me and started rubbing my shoulder, trying to relax me. He'd done this for as long as I could remember, but I could sense my mom watching us very carefully. She said, "What about adoption? Or staying with me?"

I immediately shook my head. "They can't be adopted by regular people; they have _wings_. And if they didn't, I think the selfish part of me would keep them…" I swallowed. "The best thing for them would be to live with normal people, lead normal lives, but it just can't happen."

Being the awesome parent she is, my mom understood. "So I guess that applies to staying with me, too, huh?"

I smiled apologetically at her. "Yeah."

Mom started to say something else, but a ringing sound started coming out of her pocket. She reached for her cell phone and turned it one way to look at the caller ID. Once she'd read it, she didn't answer, though.

"Who is it?" I asked.

She looked up at us. "Jeb."

Fang tensed beside me, his hand pausing in its motion and just kind of resting on my shoulder. Mom hesitated, and then pushed a button and held the phone to her ear. "Hello?"

Even though I couldn't make out what Jeb was saying, I could hear his panicked voice, and I definitely didn't overlook the way my mom's eyes went wide about three seconds into the conversation. After another couple seconds, she looked at me and Fang and held a finger to her lips. I nodded, and she carefully put the phone on speaker.

"--cannot put into words how important these experiments were, Valencia. They're arguably the most vital pieces we have to study, and they're _gone_."

"Well, _I_ don't know where they are," my mom said calmly. "I don't even know _what_ they are. Why are you telling me this?"

"I think Max and the flock are involved," Jeb said. "The School had captured them, and they broke out the same day these experiments disappeared. Have you seen them lately?"

"No," Mom lied easily. "Why would they be interested in these experiments, anyway?" She was piecing the questions together carefully, fishing to make him state what we already knew.

He exhaled loudly, breath crackling through the phone. "The experiments are Max and Fang's children. They were created in test tubes with DNA gathered before I helped them escape."

The factuality of it, hearing it in another person's voice and not my own, shocked me enough that I gasped quietly and put a hand over my mouth. Fang took my arm, pulling me closer to his side and trying to calm me. One look at his clenched jaw, though, told me that he was just as unnerved at this situation as I was.

"Oh, Jeb, honestly," Mom sighed into the phone, trying to sound surprised at what he'd just told her. "I can't believe you did that."

"It wasn't my idea. I was against it. I--"

"Look, I really have to go," she said. "I'll tell you if I see any sign of the flock, alright?"

"Okay. I need to know where these two experiments are, Valencia. It's very important."

"Yes, I know," she sighed. "I'll let you know. Bye, Jeb."

Even before he had responded, Mom was ending the call and shoving it back in her pocket. I gently pulled away from Fang, and he squeezed my arm before letting go completely.

"What were you guys planning to do?" Mom asked. "Stay on the run?"

I shrugged. "I think so."

She sighed again. "Well, since you have all this media attention now, with the air shows and the blog and all, that's probably not the best idea. The School is going to be doing all they can to get your kids back, so you can _not_ be seen on the news or anything. You need to stay in one place, one hard to find."

"Like… a home?" I asked, the word sounding almost foreign to me.

"Exactly. What about one where you used to live? In the Colorado mountains?"

I closed my eyes momentarily, thinking about that. Me and my flock and my kids, my family, safe and sound. But there was one major thing standing in the way. Where exactly were we supposed to _get_ a place to stay like that?

"The CSM could pull some strings," she said, as if she could read minds and had heard my question. "I'll see what I can do."

Actually, this plan sounded really, really good to me. I was ready for a break. I turned to Fang. "That sound good?"

He nodded at me. "Sounds good."

**Like it? Hate it? Let me know! I really, really want to know!! : D**


	7. Chapter 6

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter! You guys rock. Here's the next one!**

A couple days later, I sat down heavily on the couch, exhausted. We were staying with my mom for a few days until a CSM member could prepare their out-of-the-way mountain vacation house for us. The flock had been so excited about having a home again that they'd been practically bouncing off the walls. Not to mention Ella, who was ecstatic that we were there in the first place and that we'd brought her niece and nephew. They'd actually been a much bigger handful than the three-year-olds.

After Mom was done talking to Fang and I about our next move, she'd insisted on going out and buying Gracie and Devin some toys and the whole flock some non-Wal-Mart clothes. I'd been reluctant-- I didn't want them to become used to it, since there was no guarantee I could provide that kind of thing in the future-- but Fang convinced me to let everyone have some fun while they could, and I consented.

Now my kids were playing with these jumbo Legos, sitting close together and sharing. I was glad they appeared to be so close; all I needed was a couple of mutant bird kid twins who hated each other.

"Yo."

I looked up to see Fang sitting down beside me. "Hey."

I suddenly felt _so_ tired, and without really thinking about it, I leaned against him, resting my head on his shoulder. At first he stiffened under me, but then his fingers slowly started to run through my hair.

Was it just me, or was the tension between me and Fang melting away? Ever since the first time he kissed me and I ran, things had been awkward between us; we hadn't been as comfortable with each other as we once were. Now, though, things seemed to be somewhat resolved.

I liked it.

"The flock wore me out," I told him.

"It's four in the afternoon," Fang said, sounding amused.

"They've been insane," I sighed, closing my eyes for a second, then opening them so I could watch the kids some more. Fang chuckled.

At one point, Gracie stood up and grinned toothily at me. "Mommy, can I get another cookie?"

I smiled at her. "Sure, sweetie."

With that, she trotted into the other room, and Devin followed her. Suddenly my throat felt tight. By the time I'd met my kids, they could already walk, already talk in complete sentences. Most mothers got to see their children's first steps, hear their first words, but not me. The only people who heard that from my kids were a bunch of evil scientists. Hell, they created _my_ kids _and_ their speech-- I knew from experience that the whitecoats used special methods to get their experiments to talk earlier in life, since most of them didn't last long.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Fang asked with quiet alertness.

I gritted my teeth, annoyed that he knew me so well. "Nothing."

"Max."

"Fine." I peered up at him. "It's just, you know, I missed three whole years of their lives, and I never got to see their first steps or smiles or anything. And I feel like a rotten mother because they've been in that freaking hellhole, I should have gotten them out, and--"

"You didn't even know they existed."

He was right, of course. He was always right. Still, I couldn't help feeling like I'd done something wrong. "I know."

"Stop being so hard on yourself," Fang ordered.

"I will." I sighed. "It would have been nice to see those first things, though."

"Don't think about what you missed," he said. "Think about all you're going to see. They're part of the flock now, Max. And we fight for the flock, no matter what. Now that they're here, they're staying."

I nodded, then smirked up at him. "That was quite a speech, O Silent One."

He ignored this jab. "We'll get to go through their whole lives now, Max." Brushing a piece of hair away from my face, he softly added, "Don't worry. It'll be okay."

0000000000

Fang was trying. He really was. I could tell, my mom could tell, even _Iggy_ could tell, as he whispered to me, "Is he attempting to be _comfort_ your daughter?" But he just didn't have the natural parental instincts that I did, and it was harder for him. Both the kids really loved him already-- especially Devin, who didn't trust anybody else as much as Fang, not even me. Still, he was taking on more responsibility than he'd ever taken on with parenting the flock, and he was struggling.

Even as he tried to help with Gracie and Devin, though, he hadn't directly acknowledged that the kids were his. Like not saying it out loud would make it easier.

A couple days into our stay at Mom's, we didn't see much of her. She was either at work or on the phone, trying to make arrangements on our house. On Saturday, when Ella didn't have school, we convinced Mom to let us go out to eat. After a long warning-- "You see anybody that looks like they have a camera, you come right home"-- she gave us some money and had Ella show us this restaurant just down the street. The nine of us went, minus Mom, and I just prayed that Gracie and Devin wouldn't choose that time to throw a fit. _That_ was one first I could live without experiencing.

About halfway through our meal, Gazzy let loose one of his "gifts"-- I'd been stupid enough to let him have two bowls of chili-- and everybody groaned, holding their noses. I turned away from helping Gracie eat without spilling ketchup all over herself to say, "Gazzy, seriously."

"I can't help it!" he exclaimed, all wide-eyed innocence. "It's a natural bodily function!"

"That you go to extreme lengths to _initiate_," I told him. "Stop."

I turned back to Gracie, but I had just dipped a fry in the ketchup when another fart ripped through the air.

"Gazzy, honestly," I snapped, dropping the fry and reaching across the table for the chili. "That's it. You're switching meals with me."

"No!" He grabbed his bowl and held it tight to his chest, twisting away from me. "It's _my_ chili!"

"And I'm trying to save _my_ sense of smell!" I got out of my chair and went around the side of the table, starting to wrestle Gazzy for the chili while everybody watched and laughed. "Give… me…"

"Max," Ella said suddenly, and something in her voice made me snap my head up. "_Max_--"

"What?" I released Gazzy and looked over at her. "What is it?"

"Gracie's gone!"

I looked over at the two high chairs at the end of the table. Devin was in one, and the other was turned over on its side, the restraints loose.

Fang jumped out of his chair and came over to my side of the table. Together we started scanning the room, but it was crowded, and Gracie was so small she could have been hiding under any table, chair, or otherwise.

"Oh, man," I muttered, my heart pounding in my chest. "Not here, this is bad, _so_ bad--"

Fang took my arm and started to lead me away. "Calm down, Max. She can't have gone far. She's here somewhere."

"Or they _took_ her!" I shrieked. "Back to the School!"

He didn't answer, but tensed and held my arm tighter, and I knew he was thinking about that possibility.

We walked around the restaurant for about five minutes, checking in every nook and cranny, but there was no sign of Gracie. The rest of the flock and Ella was scattered around the restaurant, searching as well, but to no avail. I was really starting to panic when a frazzled-looking waitress dragging Gracie along by the hand hurried up to us.

"Is she yours?" she asked, mostly to Fang, since Gracie looked exactly like him. Normally, Max the Leader would have taken charge and taken my little girl and gotten out of there, but… I just felt like this was Fang's turn. So I stayed quiet, silently willing Fang to answer the waitress and really take responsibility for his child for the first time.

"Yeah," he said finally, and my heart swelled. I watched as he extended a hand, folding Gracie's tiny fingers within his large ones. "She's mine."

**I don't know if I like this, but, whatever. The last scene is necessary.**

**Please let me know what you thought-- review!**


	8. Chapter 7

**Hey guys! I was going to put this up tomorrow, but it occurred to me that a lot of you may not have time to read tomorrow, so here it is today. Happy Thanksgiving!**

**This chapter is really where the rest of the story begins. For the most part, the kids trust Max and Fang, and now they're in hiding, so we shall see how Max and Fang deal with this…**

**Enjoy!!**

"Oh, man," I said. "Oh, man, oh, man, oh, man."

It had been a week since we first got to my mom's. The CSM had hurriedly moved her things out of the house, and today one of their little private jets had flown us to Colorado. Mom had actually flown out a few days before on another private jet, along with the things she had insisted on buying for us and a whole plane carrying a _lot_ of food and supplies (we were to avoid going into town whenever possible). She'd set up the house, putting things away, then helped us get settled, but had to get back to Arizona so she could work that night. Now we were all exploring the house on our own, oohing and ahhing.

There were two stories, which included a kitchen, a living room, two bathrooms, and three bedrooms. Even the walls had been painted in every room, beds set up for us. It was great. So great, in fact, that I had to stop several times and remind myself that we were here because a bunch of mad scientist types (including Jeb-- the CSM was keeping this from him) were frantically searching the country for my little winged children.

Right now, Nudge, Devin and I had just come across the twins' room. There were two small beds, one against each wall, each with a bedside table, and two small dressers with a toy box between them. The walls were light green, a neutral color.

"Here's your room, buddy," I told Devin, plopping him down on the bed with the blue bedspread. He smiled at me. Yes, he _smiled_. My little boy was learning to trust me. I was still waiting to be addressed as Mommy, but you take what you can get.

"Oooh, _Max_," Nudge said, standing in the middle of the room and looking around. "This is _cute_. I mean, the paint looks good, but your mom did a _really_ good job on the furniture and everything! And look!" She hurried over to the dressers, yanked open one of the drawers of Gracie's, and pulled out a little dress. "She picked out _adorable_ clothes."

I smiled at her. "Yeah, she did do a good job, huh, Nudge?"

"Mommy!"

I turned around to see Gracie bounding into the room. I knelt to her level. "Hey, honey. This is _your_ room. This is where you're gonna sleep from now on."

"It's pretty," she said, running a hand over the pink bedspread and smiling at me.

"Can I put this on her?" Nudge asked me, holding up the dress.

I furrowed my brow and glanced at Gracie, wearing jeans and a shirt and jacket. "What's wrong with what she has on?"

"Well, nothing," Nudge said. "But… this is just so _cute_."

I opened my mouth to protest, but Gracie crawled across the bed to Nudge. I sighed. "Oh, fine."

Nudge squealed and Gracie giggled, and then she started helping her undress. I motioned to Devin, and he trotted out of the room and down the hallway, probably going to hang out with the guys. "You girls have fun," I said, and stepped outside, pulling the door shut behind me. In the living room, Iggy and Gazzy were laughing, Angel's high-pitched one mixed in with them. I was pretty sure Fang was with them, but of course I couldn't hear him.

I hadn't had the chance to really look at the room I was sharing with the girls', what with everything going on around me. Now, I went to the room next door to the twins' and plopped down on my bed, looking around. The walls were a deeper green than the twins', and there was one big dressed for the three of us. Overall, I liked it.

The door opened a little, and Fang stuck his head in. "Hey."

"Hey."

He put his hands in his pockets and casually looked around the room. "You like the place?"

"It's pretty nice," I said.

"Yeah," Fang agreed, sitting down beside me. I looked over at him; something was up. Catching my gaze and knowing what I was thinking, he exhaled loudly. "Max, I-- I wanted to apologize again."

I bit back a sarcastic comment. Fang apologizing the _first_ time was shocking enough; a second time was unheard of. Instead I just said, "Yeah?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I… I'm _glad_ we rescued the kids. I guess… at first I was having trouble wrapping my mind around really being a dad, but now I'm sort of used to it, and… I _like_ it," he finished in wonder, as if he couldn't believe this.

I looked over at him. "Really?"

"Yeah. I mean, they both trust me. Gracie's started hugging me before she goes to bed. And she always says 'I love you, Daddy.' Every time I hear that, it's…" Fang seemed to catch himself showing emotion and quickly looked down, digging the toe of his sneaker into the tan carpet.

"It's what?" I prodded softly, dumbfounded at this whole conversation.

"It's just this really… great feeling. I don't know."

I smiled and bumped his knee with mine. "It really is, isn't it?"

"Yeah." He ripped his gaze away from the floor and met my eyes, one corner of his mouth quirking up. An understanding passed between us, just knowing that we were in this together, that we were sharing this incredible feeling of getting to watch our own kids grow up.

"Mommy!"

"Here comes the great feeling," I said quietly, hearing a pounding set of footsteps in the hallway. A moment later, the door flew open, and Gracie came flying in, wearing her dress.

"Nudgie and me wanna play hide-and-seek," she said, quickly hugging Fang's leg. He didn't even stiffen, like he did at most physical contact. In fact, he hugged her back lightly with one arm. They really had gotten close in the past few weeks.

It was kind of sweet.

"That's fine," I said. "Should you see if the other kids want to play?"

"Yeah!" Gracie said happily. She made to leave the room, but then grinned toothily up at Fang. "Will you carry me in there, Daddy?"

"Sure," he said, and stood, picking her up. "Let's go."

They started to leave, and I thought again about how well Fang was doing. I didn't move from my spot on the bed, until Gracie peeked over his shoulder and said, "Mommy? Are you coming?"

And then Fang turned and gave me one of his full-blown grins. "Yeah, come on, Max."

I stood up and followed my child and their father out of the room, feeling better about my messed up mutant life than I had in a long, long time.

**Next update will probably be December 1, maybe a tad later, we'll see. Review?**


	9. Chapter 8

**I said you guys would probably have to wait until at least December 1, but I'm in a good mood, so I'm updating on November 30! : )**

**Disclaimer: I own Gracie and Devin and that's it.**

Parenting, real parenting, is hard.

I mean, it's one thing to take care of a bunch of kids in the middle-childhood stage because you're the best they have. And that is hard, too. But when you're the parent of toddlers, doing your very best to be normal even though you're in hiding in the mountains, things get a lot more complicated.

Like…

"Mommy!"

I groaned and rolled over to face Gracie, standing at the side of my bed with a worried expression on her face. A glance over at the clock told me it was three in the morning. "What is it, honey?"

"I had a bad dream!" she whispered frantically.

"Shh, don't wake Nudge and Angel. What was your dream about?"

"They were coming for us, Mommy!" she said, quieter this time.

I sighed and sat up, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed. I reached down and picked Gracie up, settling her on my lap. "It was just a dream, honey," I whispered, stroking her hair as she leaned against me. "They're not coming for us. We're safe here."

"It was scary," she whispered.

I stood, bringing her with me. Careful to tiptoe, I crept around Nudge's bed, out of the room, and down the hall. In the kitchen, I placed Gracie on the counter and opened the door to the fridge.

"Do you want some ice cream, sweetie?" I asked her, holding up the carton.

"Sure," she said, but not cheerfully like usual. She was gripping the edge of the counter with both hands, eyes darting every which way, face pale.

With another sigh, I walked over and started smoothing down her messy curls. "I know how you feel," I said. "This house is all big and scary, right?"

"Uh-huh," she mumbled, putting a finger in her mouth.

"Well, you'll get used to it," I said. "Daddy and I won't let anything happen to you or Devin or the others. And in the meantime…" I took the ice cream carton and stuck it under her nose, tickling her stomach with one hand. She scooted away from me, giggling. "Why don't we have some of this?"

"Okay," she said, calmed, and I took down two bowls and made us some ice cream, complete with chocolate syrup on top. Just as we were digging in, a sound from behind us made me whip around, poised to fight. But when I saw where it came from, I realized the noise was a whimper.

Standing in the doorway was Devin. Tear tracks were visible on his soft little cheeks.

"Hey, honey," I said, kneeling down and opening my arms. He rushed into them, and I could hear him gasping in my ear as he cried. I rubbed circles in between his wings, already on guard, trying to decide if there was a connection between Gracie's nightmare and whatever was bothering him.

A moment later, Fang appeared in the doorway, wearing dark plaid pajama pants and a black shirt. "What's going on?"

Looky here, I thought sarcastically. Family rendezvous in the kitchen in the middle of the night.

"Gracie had a bad dream," I told him, standing up with Devin still in my arms. "And I don't know what's wrong with him." I carefully turned his head so he was looking at me and asked, "Did you have a bad dream, too?"

"Yeah," he said weakly, rubbing his eye with his fist. "They, they were chasing me."

"Sounds like Gracie's dream," I murmured, meeting Fang's eyes over Devin's shoulder. He nodded, letting me know he understood my suspicion. Maybe the whitecoats had identical chips put in the twins, and therefore their thoughts traveled to each other. But if there were chips, Jeb wouldn't be freaking out about trying to find them, because it'd be easy. Right?

I went to put Devin on the ground, but his little fist was clutching the strap of my tank top so tightly that I couldn't pry it off.

"Devin, let go," I said gently. He didn't. "Fang…"

Fang moved over, took Devin's fingers in one hand and the strap in the other, and slowly pulled them apart. Then he took him from me and placed him on the counter beside Gracie.

"Here, Devin," I said, handing him my bowl of ice cream. "It's okay. Dreams aren't real. You're fine."

When the kids looked satisfied, digging into their treat, I shivered, feeling a sudden chill in the room-- or maybe it was just me being creeped out.

Crossing my arms over my chest, I moved to stand beside Fang. "There is something totally fishy about them having the same dream at the same time."

He shrugged. "Maybe. Or it could always be because they had the same traumatic experiences at the School, and being in this new place brought out their fears of strange rooms and people."

I bit my lip, still skeptical. "I don't know."

I started to head back over to the kids, but Fang put his hand on my arm. "Hey," he said softly. "Don't worry about it. We'll just keep an eye on them, see what happens."

I inhaled deeply and nodded. "Alright. Stay on guard."

After the kids finished up their ice cream and I dumped the bowls in the sink, I swung Gracie onto one hip and Devin on the other and said, "Time for bed, you two."

As I turned, I saw Fang leaning on the doorframe, watching the three of us carefully. I held Devin out with one arm, and he took him.

"You gonna help me put them to bed?" I asked over my shoulder, already heading down the hallway. Gracie sighed and rested her head on my chest, unusually quiet.

"Yeah."

"Good," I muttered, pushing open the door to the twins' room. The covers on both their beds were sloppily thrown over the sides.

I put Gracie in her bed and Fang put Devin in his, but then he stood back as I kissed both their heads and said, "The dreams weren't real, guys. Don't worry about it. Just get a good nights' sleep, and in the morning we'll go for another flying lesson. Sound good?"

"Yeah," said Devin.

"Uh-huh," murmured Gracie tiredly. I smiled and moved her hair out of her face.

"Good night," I called softly, backing up toward the door. "Sleep tight."

"Wait," Gracie slurred, sitting up with a lot of effort. "Daddy, hug."

My eyes slid over to Fang. To my surprise, he walked right up to her bed and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. When he pulled away, she lay her head back on the pillow and said, "Love you."

"You too," he told her, and even though he didn't use the actual word, that much was such a big step for the emotionless guy. Every time Gracie said it to him, he just sort of smiled, before now. Every day, he was getting better at this.

I was kind of proud of him.

"Good night," I said one last time. After Fang stepped past me into the hallway, I followed and pulled the door shut behind me.

Just as it was about to close, I heard Devin say, "Good night, Mommy," and my heart soared again, like it seemed to be doing so often when I was around these kids.

**Aww. That's so cute.**

**Review?**


	10. Chapter 9

**It's only been four days since I updated! Yay for me being in a good mood and deciding to give you a chapter soon after!**

**Disclaimer: I own Gracie, and Devin, but not their parents. Or anything else.**

We'd practiced flying a couple times in the woods by Mom's, but decided that even though the woods were pretty dark, it was a neighborhood, so we should stop. Up here in the mountains, though, nobody was around for miles and miles, and we were totally free to fly whenever we wanted.

One morning, the flock was in the air, doing flips and turns and playing tag. Fang and I were on the ground, supervising our kids while they flew at very low altitudes-- like, twenty feet-- and short distances. When I glanced over at him, watching him watch the twins, I was surprised at how much his face had softened, how less closed it was.

I was so absorbed in watching Fang-- oops-- that by the time I registered Gazzy's yell of, "Devin! Do the dive bomb I taught you!" it was too late to run out of the way. Devin crashed into me, and I staggered backward, trying to catch him and myself at the same time.

Then two strong arms grabbed me around the waist, and suddenly I wasn't falling anymore. Devin was splayed out on my chest, and with a grunt, I managed to lower him to the ground. Now I was alone in Fang's arms.

Awkward.

"Are you okay, Devin?" I asked as Fang helped me stand upright.

"Yeah," he said, and then he was off, flying up to be with Gracie.

"Gazzy!" I called, tilting my head back to gaze at the sky. The Gasman looked sheepishly down at me. "Don't tell him to do stuff like that!"

"Why?" he asked innocently.

I rolled my eyes. "Because he'll do it."

Cackling, he swooped off to catch up with Iggy. I sighed and rubbed my arm, which had been hit pretty hard in the collision.

Fang looked at me. "You okay?"

"Yeah."

He smirked. "Our kid's tough. Causing pain to the amazing Maximum Ride."

My eyebrows shot up-- did he really just say that?-- and I looked over at him. "Our?"

He nodded, the ghost of a smile on his lips.

Before I could think about it, before I could stop myself, I turned to him and blurted out, "Our, like you and me? _Is_ there a you and me?"

Our eyes met, and something shifted. Like that day at the beach, when he'd admitted he'd been afraid of losing me, I couldn't place my finger on it. But there _was_ a change, right then.

"Of course there's a you and me, Max," Fang said, squeezing my arm and starting to walk away. "There's _always_ a you and me."

0000000000

I was laying on my bed later, contemplating Fang and me and whether there really was an _us_, an _our_, and how we seemed to be closer than we'd been since before he kissed me, when I heard Gracie scream.

Fearing the worst, of course, I sprang up and sprinted into the living room. When I got there, though, there were no M-Geeks or anything invading our house. Nope, just my three-year-olds, throwing punches at each other. And in the middle was Fang, trying to pull them apart but not having much success.

"Hey! Cut it out, you two!" I yelled, just as Fang caught one in the jaw from Devin. I barely contained my laughter as he staggered backward, holding his chin. At his glare, I recovered and grabbed Devin around his middle, prying him away from Gracie. Even as I held him in the air, she kept swatting at his feet, hopping up to reach.

"Gracie, no," I told her, but I saw that same look in her eyes as the last time she and Devin had gotten like this. One move they saw as threatening, and they were full of fear, even of each other. I hated that they'd have to go through that, and one part of me wanted to just hug them. But the other part knew I had to put a stop to this, before they either killed each other or grew up punching anybody who looked in their direction.

"Gracie, go sit on the couch," I told her. She didn't move. "Now."

Still rubbing his jaw, Fang came back over and picked Gracie up. She resisted, screaming bloody murder, until she realized who was carrying her. When he placed her on the couch, she sat there and pouted.

"And you," I told Devin, placing him on the opposite end, "sit there and do not move."

Fang and I stood in front of the couch and watched them slowly cool down. On the outside, I was calm and cool and in control, but on the inside I was sort of nervous. Jeb had been one for time-outs and sending us to our rooms, so by the time he left, everybody had learned better. I didn't have to deal with discipline as much as keeping everybody alive. With the twins, though, I was having to start from scratch.

"What happened?" I murmured to Fang.

"She tripped him," he said, just as quietly. "Not on purpose. But he wheeled around and hit her, and she hit him back."

"Okay." I crossed my arms and faced the kids again. "You guys, you can't hit."

"But then they'll hurt us," Gracie said.

Yep. Suspicions confirmed.

I knelt down in front of Gracie. "Some people will hurt you," I told her. "But Devin's your brother. You trust him. Daddy and me, and Angel, Nudge, Gazzy and Iggy, we won't hurt you, either. Okay? If anybody besides us hits you, you fight back. Got it?"

She nodded, and I patted her little knee. Then I moved over to Devin. "And you." I waited for him to look at me, but he kept his face stubbornly turned away. "Gracie didn't mean to trip you. And even if she did, you don't hit your own sister. Ever."

I stood, looking down at them. "Do you two understand me?"

"Yes, Mommy," said Gracie.

"Devin?"

Devin was still not looking at me. I half wanted him to break down in tears like last time this happened, just so he would let me touch him, maybe get through to him. But he didn't. All he did was glare into space.

"Devin," I repeated, more sharply this time, "Go up to your room."

Still he did nothing, and I sighed and picked him up. As soon as my arms came around him, he started shrieking and beating on me. Unlike Fang, I was not able to be defeated by the punch of a toddler-- although I'll admit it did kind of hurt.

I threw Devin over my shoulder and left the room. The flock was in the hallway, wondering what the commotion was, and I waved them to go back into the boys' room, where they'd been playing a game.

Over the fit my kid was throwing, I barely heard Fang tell Gracie to stay on the couch and not move, then his quick yet quiet footsteps behind me.

I arrived at the twins' room and dumped Devin on the bed. While he started jumping around on it, still yelling enough to induce a migraine, I made sure the window was locked tight-- just in case he got the idea to fly away.

"I'll be back later to talk to you about this," I said with mucho authority as I passed him on my way out the door. Fang was waiting for me, his arms slightly extended, knowing me so well.

As soon as the bedroom door was shut and I was certain the hallway was empty, I put my hands over my face and my face in Fang's chest. His arms came around me, holding me against him, and I groaned in frustration.

"I can't do this," I said, my voice muffled by his black shirt.

"Yes you can," he reassured me, tracing light circles between my wings. "You've been taking care of the flock for years, Max. This is nothing new."

"It is, though!" I protested. "It's totally different. I never have to punish the flock or worry about their behavior. To those two, I'm a _mother_, a _real_ one, in every sense of the word. And man, Fang, it sucks!"

Fang didn't say anything, but I knew he understood as he smoothed his hand over my hair. I kept swallowing, over and over, willing myself not to cry and be a big baby about this.

After a while, I pulled away, rubbing my forehead with my hand. "Fang, what if they've messed Devin up so much he'll never be able to trust _anybody_?"

He put his arm around me, pulling me against his side. I leaned into his warmth, a little comforted. "He just has a chip on his shoulder. We were all like that when we first got out of the School. He'll get past it."

"Well, by that logic, Gracie should be acting this way, too. And she's _not_."

"She is," Fang told me. "Just not as much as Devin. But as soon as he swung his fist at her, she was fighting back."

I sighed. "I never thought I'd say this about anything… but this is _so_ much harder than being on the run."

**Slight Fax there at the end for ya.**

**I feel like I type this word a lot, but I really like getting them, so… REVIEW! : )**


	11. Chapter 10

**Guys, this story is shaping up to 19 chapters, and I'm currently working on Chapter 19! I'm almost done! : D**

**Disclaimer: I only own Gracie and Devin, nothing else…**

"Eww, Gazzy!" Nudge shrieked, holding her nose. The Gasman cackled and high-fived Iggy. I groaned as I dumped my bowl and silverware in the sink, then picked up another plate, loaded with food.

"I'm going to give this to Devin," I told Fang.

Devin was carrying out his punishment for the incident earlier that day, which meant he was to stay in his room until he was ready to apologize to Gracie. It was ironic I was teaching my kids manners like saying "I'm sorry," which was something I almost never did. But I'd decided I was going to raise them as normal as possible, so I was going back to the basics.

Already, though, Fang had stopped me from going to check on Devin three times. I just wanted to be sure he was still there, that the whitecoats hadn't come and stolen him away while nobody was watching him. But every time I headed in that direction, Fang grabbed my arm and said, "Max. If you don't trust him, he won't trust you."

So I'd waited until after dinner. My stomach fluttered as Fang and I walked down the hallway. What if Devin _had_ been taken? What if he had pried open the window and escaped?

"Would you calm down?" Fang muttered as we stood outside the twins' room. "I'm sure he's fine."

"Only one way to find out," I sighed, and pushed the door open.

Inside, Devin was sitting on the bed, and relief washed over me. When he saw me and Fang, he immediately pouted and crossed her arms over his chest. I crossed the room silently and placed the plate beside him on the bed. "Hungry?"

He hesitantly picked up one of the biscuits and chewed slowly. Over his head, Fang and I locked eyes, nodded slightly, then lowered ourselves to sit on either side of Devin as he continued to eat.

"Listen, Devin," I said, trying to be gentle but firm. That was what toddlers responded to, right? "We understand that you thought Gracie was trying to hurt you. "Most of the time, we'll allow you to defend yourself if somebody tries to do that. Okay?"

I waited for acknowledgement before I went on. Devin wasn't giving it to me, but I stayed strong, holding his gaze for a long time. Finally, he nodded slowly, and I kept going. "However, there are people who would _never_ hurt you, so you never hurt them. These are the people you can trust. Those people are Gracie, me, Daddy, Angel, Nudge, Gazzy, Iggy, Grandma and Aunt Ella. Never hit one of them. Got it?"

Reaching for a fish stick, Devin appeared to be mulling over what I had said. Fang and I met eyes over his head and barely nodded, then watched him. I really hoped he said he got it, because I didn't know where to go from here if he didn't.

"Okay," he finally said, and I breathed out heavily. Part one down. Get part two done, and I was home free.

"You need to apologize to Gracie," Fang said, surprising me. I thought he was there to go through the motions, just so the kids would get used to seeing us as Mommy _and_ Daddy. It had never really occurred to me that he'd take any action. "Are you ready to do that after you eat?"

Devin didn't even hesitate this time, nodding as he stuffed another fish stick in his mouth.

"Good," Fang said, standing up. I quickly followed. "When you're done eating there, come on downstairs and say sorry to Gracie. Okay?"

"Okay, Daddy," said Devin, nonchalantly continuing with his meal. Fang and I hadn't missed the big word, though: Daddy. It was the first time it had come out of Devin's mouth, even though he'd trusted Fang almost since the very beginning.

Fang's eyes were sparkling.

We left our son to his dinner and went out into the hallway. As I eased the door shut behind us, our eyes met, and they stayed that way when we were alone in the hallway, no sound but the flock's laughter from the kitchen.

"You handled that well," Fang said, the corner of his mouth quirking up.

"Thanks," I said, smiling back. "So did you."

"We just punished our kid for the first time," he said quietly. My heart leapt at that word _our_. It seemed that it was applying to us more and more, and I was finding that I sort of liked it.

"Yeah. How does that feel?" I asked, taking a step closer.

Fang shrugged, and a full-fledged grin broke across his face. "He called me Daddy."

**Alright, sorry it's short-ish, but the next chapter's the longest one yet!**

**Reviews are ALWAYS appreciated! **


	12. Chapter 11

**Okay, I planned to post this tomorrow, but I'm feeling nice today. It's the longest chapter in this story so far… and it's what you've all been waiting for.**

**So enjoy!**

"No," I said, shaking my head. "No way."

"Max, come on!" said Nudge. "It'll be so much _fun_!"

"You should go, Max," Iggy put in. "Like, in all seriousness. You should."

I scowled at him, even though he couldn't see it. "_No_. You know the School is stopping at nothing to capture my kids. If we go into town, we'll be spotted."

"But Max," said Angel, looking up at me with wide, innocent blue eyes. "You're the one who told me you and Fang wanted Gracie and Devin to have the most normal life possible, and that's why you were raising them together even though you 'aren't in love.'" I blushed when she did finger quotes around the last three words, embarrassed that she was talking about this discussion while Fang was _right there_. "Having a family night, just the four of you, would help them having a more normal life, wouldn't it?"

"Well, yeah, but--" I sputtered, at a loss for words. That was true; I _had_ wanted to do whatever was necessary to give these kids a normal experience, but I had to put their safety first. This argument, however, wasn't working on the four bird kids ganging up on me.

I looked over to Fang for help. He was standing off to the side, the kids playing at his feet, watching the conversation unfold. Instead of coming to my rescue, though, he said, "I think we should go."

I stared, my mouth dropping open, and then threw my hands in the air. "Am I the only one who's concerned with our _safety_ here?"

"I don't think it'll hurt," Fang said. "And Angel's right. We do need to do something together. As a family."

"Why don't we stay here and play with them?" I asked, putting my hands on my hips. "They won't know the difference."

"That's all they ever do," he said, stepping closer and dropping his voice so he was only speaking to me. "Sit around and play in the house. Fly around outside. That's _it_. What if something really bad happens, and we never get this opportunity again? Don't you want them to have at least one happy memory of going someplace with their parents?"

I bit my lip while my logical side fought with my sentimental side. The sentimental side said he was right. The logical side said, _What if you get caught?_

"It's what we were deprived of, Max," Fang said quietly, and that was what pushed my sentimental side over my logical side: the thought of giving my children what I could never have.

Damn motherly instincts.

"Fine," I grumbled, and the flock cheered. "Nudge, did you write down the address of the play you found?"

"Yep!" she said happily, handing me a piece of paper. "There's all you need to know! It's _Annie_, it starts at seven, you and Fang pay five bucks each but the kids get in free."

"Great," I sighed, looking over her messy handwriting. "Fang, let's go, I guess."

I grabbed my windbreaker off the back of the couch and threw Fang's and the kids' to them. Gracie was reaching out for Fang, so he picked her up. I shoved the piece of paper in my back pocket and got Devin. We headed towards the front door, and I pulled it open. "Don't blow up the house," I called over my shoulder, and then I shut the door behind us.

I tilted my head back and looked at the sky. "Should we carry them?"

Fang thought for a moment, then said, "Yeah. Let them get used to the altitude before they start flying that high."

"Alright," I said, and took off running, leaping into the air and unfurling my wings, holding Devin tight in my arms. I heard Fang take off behind us and Gracie squeal with joyous laughter. I smiled to myself. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

We climbed and climbed, rising higher and higher into the sky. I took in deep breaths of the fresh air, feeling my heart fill with the freedom of flying. It didn't take long for Fang to catch up with me, and when I looked over there, I thought that this felt sort of _right_: me and him, high above the earth with the kids who were _ours_, pieces of us.

We arrived a couple miles outside Denver forty-five minutes later, with about an hour to spare before the play. Nobody had eaten since lunch, so I said, "Fang, let's find a place to eat."

He nodded as we walked toward the city. Both of us had put down the kid we were carrying, and now we were in a line holding hands. It was sort of sweet, Devin's hand in mine and Gracie's in Fang's and the kids' in each others'. "Not a crowded place," he said, looking at me over the kids' heads. I nodded, remembering losing Gracie and how frightening that had been. "I'm thinking fast food."

"Me too." We were passing through a park, and ahead of us were busy streets. I spotted a McDonalds' and pointed to it. "There?"

"Sure."

"Where we going?" asked Gracie, craning her neck.

"McDonald's," I told her. "You can have some chicken nuggets or something."

"Yay," she said, smiling, and I smiled back. Man, when had I ever felt like this? I mean, I definitely had felt maternally toward the flock, but not this much. It was like knowing the kids were _mine_ made me feel more strongly, every one of their smiles making my heart squeeze joyfully.

We walked to the McDonald's, several people smiling at us but one or two glaring. It made me feel very uncomfortable, being under the radar like that, so as Fang held the door open for me and the kids, I hung back and said, "Did you see those people looking at us?"

He glanced back behind him. "No."

"That makes me nervous, Fang," I whispered, doing an automatic 360. "People looking at us. We shouldn't be here. We should go."

"Would you relax?" Fang whispered back, looking around again. "Did the people look suspicious?"

I thought, then slowly shook my head. "No," I admitted. "They looked like normal people. Except that they were giving us really dirty _looks_, Fang. Why else would they be looking at us like that?"

He stared at me, then started to laugh. I put my hands on my hips and glared at him. "Why are you laughing?" I demanded. "This isn't funny. We're in danger. Our _kids_ are in danger. What is your issue?"

"That's not why they were looking at us," he said, trying to keep a straight face and failing. I furrowed my brow, confused, and Fang took my shoulders, gently turning me around to face the inside of the restaurant. My eyes fell on the twins, who had picked out a table and were crawling over the chairs. "That's why."

"What do you mean, _that's why_?" I asked irritably. "Don't give me that fortune cookie crap. I don't feel like talking to the Voice right now."

"Those people were looking at us because we're teenagers and we were with two kids who look exactly like us," Fang said with exaggerated patience. "That's kind of less than socially acceptable."

Oh.

Feeling stupid, I gave him a glare of my own and snapped, "Well, why didn't you just say that?" Then I strode into the McDonald's, hearing him sigh heavily behind me, and headed for the kids.

"Mommy, I'm hungry," said Gracie, sticking her thumb in her mouth. "Can we eat now?"

"Yes," I said, gently taking her wrist and pulling it away from her face. "What do you want? Nuggets?"

"Lots of 'em," she said, holding up ten fingers.

I smiled at her, deciding I'd get three, and a couple sides of fries. "Okay. Devin?"

"Me too," he said. "With a toy."

I turned to Fang, who had walked up beside me with his hands shoved in his pockets. "You?"

"Just, like, three double cheeseburgers," he said, plopping down in one of the four chairs. Gracie immediately toddled over to him, climbing into his lap. "And fries. Apple pie."

"Got it." I backed away, toward the counter. "Be right back."

By the time I ordered our large amount of food, went through the usual argument with the cashier who was shocked by how much we were ordering, ate the food, and took Gracie to the bathroom, we had only half an hour to find this community center where the show was playing. Luckily, with our built-in sense of direction, we didn't have much trouble finding the play. In fact, we didn't really need it-- two blocks off, we saw a huge crowd gathering outside a building.

"Guess this means it's a good show?" I murmured to Fang as we got in the long line. Devin tugged on my sleeve, and I scooped him up. Gracie slipped her hand into Fang's.

"Hope so," he said. "Nudge said all the reviews on the website were really good."

I nodded, shifting Devin to my other hip so I could dig the Max Ride card out of my pocket. As somebody bumped me on one side, sending me barreling into Fang, I muttered, "I can't believe they talked us into this."

"It'll be good for us," he said, putting the hand that wasn't holding Gracie's on my back and gently pushing me upright. "For them."

"Yes, I heard," I said grumpily as we moved forward, the crowd growing thicker with every step. "That's what you said to convince me to come to this closed-in hellhole." Sweat was breaking out on my forehead, and I was growing slightly dizzy as I realized just how big this crowd was. I quickly glanced at both the kids to see if they were affected, but they didn't appear to be.

"Max." I felt Fang's gentle hand on my arm. "Max, come here. You're okay."

I shuffled closer to him, now squeezing my eyes shut. "Fang, get me out of here."

He knew when I was being serious. I felt him take Devin from me and say, "You hold Gracie's hand. Don't let go."

Someone else bumped into me, and tears started creeping out from under my closed eyelids. Gracie's scared voice: "What's wrong with Mommy?"

"Mommy's fine," Fang told her, wrapping an arm around me and starting to lead me away. I heard people moving, murmuring as we passed. "We're going to do something else, okay?"

"What we gonna do?" Devin asked.

Fang didn't say anything as he struggled to think of something to end the questions. Usually, I would be doing that job. "The park."

"The what?" asked Gracie, and I felt another wave of nausea, this one from the thought of my daughter being raised in a way where she didn't know what a _park_ was.

"It's a place where you two can play," he explained quickly. Then, "Max? We're out of that crowd."

"Oh, is _that_ the park?" asked Gracie. I opened my mouth to see we were alone on this stretch of sidewalk, and ahead of us was a park, different from the one we'd passed through earlier.

"Yeah," Fang told her. "You two can go. We'll be there in a minute."

Still hand-in-hand, the two of them took off, running to the park as fast as their little genetically enhanced legs could take them. I took in a deep, shuddering breath, feeling my heart rate slowly return to normal.

"You okay?" Fang asked, pulling me closer. I tried not to notice that he was running his hand up and down my arm, but it was hard, especially because everywhere he touched was tingling.

"Yeah," I murmured, wiping my hand across my forehead, hard, and tugging myself out of his embrace. "I'm good. Thanks."

We walked to the park in silence. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Fang was watching me carefully, but I ignored him. Once we were there, I plopped down on a bench beside the equipment, and Fang sat next to me.

"Mommy!" Gracie's face, one black curl hanging over her eye, poked over the side of the big slide. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, sweetie," I said, forcing myself to smile. "I'm fine. Go play, have fun."

She smiled back at me and proceeded down the slide, Devin behind her. As they turned to run back to the stairs, I noticed that both their wings were hanging out.

"Guys," I hissed, looking around to see if anyone was near. Nobody else was in this park, but the streets were pretty busy. Gracie and Devin looked at me, and I mouthed, "Wings." They nodded, understanding, and pulled them in like the good little mutant bird twins they were.

Fang casually put his arm over the back of the bench, behind me. I looked down at my shoulder as his fingers brushed it, but didn't say anything.

"Was that just claustrophobia?" he asked quietly, staring straight ahead. "Or a brain attack?"

"Just claustrophobia," I said, and he nodded.

As we sat there, the sky grew progressively darker until the sun was all the way down, dusk setting in. I looked up, watching the sky, thinking it was really kind of pretty.

"Max," said Fang a while later.

I turned to him. "Yeah."

Dimly, I heard Gracie and Devin laughing, but Fang's dark eyes were boring into mine, and that became the only thing I saw in the world. Slowly, quietly, he asked, "You okay now?"

"Yeah," I barely breathed.

"Glad we came?"

Was he getting closer? I gulped and leaned back a little, but Fang captured my chin in his hand, forcing me to look at him. "I guess so," I mumbled.

"Me too."

And then he kissed me.

**Dun. Dun. Dun…**

**Review!**


	13. Chapter 12

**Only own Gracie and Devin, blah blah blah.**

From there, the whole evening went downhill.

After I pulled away, just like the other two times Fang had kissed me, I quickly got the kids and hurried to some woods by the park. They were bubbly and happy, too young to be picking up on the tension in the air. Without another word between me and Fang, we flew from Denver back to our isolated mountain house.

I entered the house first and instructed the kids to get on their pajamas, said goodnight to the flock, and headed down to my room. As I shut my door loud enough for everyone to know not to mess with me, I heard Iggy asking Fang what my problem was, Nudge wanting to know why we were home so early.

In my room, I plopped down on the edge of my bed, put my head in my hands, and groaned loudly. I hated this. Fang was my best friend, and I needed him. Our relationship was too crucial to each other, the flock, and our kids to be put in a vulnerable position. What if we broke up? Would the flock split again? I couldn't deal with that.

The worst part was that… that I thought I was in love with him, the same way Angel claimed he was in love with me. What if I gave in? If I gave in and we broke up, it became _my_ fault.

There was a slight squeak as the door opened, and my head snapped up. If it was Fang…

"Mommy?" Gracie was in her nightgown, which was on backwards. "Can you come tuck us in?"

I stood up, brushed my hair out of my face, and composed myself. "Sure, honey. Come here and let me fix your nightgown, though."

She skipped over, the skirt swishing around her legs. I knelt down and instructed her to pull her arms out of the sleeves, then twisted the dress around. "There we go. Bed time."

We headed back to the twins' room, where Devin was looking at a picture book Mom had bought him. I tucked in Gracie and kissed her, and then moved over to Devin. "Lights out, buddy."

He closed the book and dropped it on the floor, then crawled under the covers. "'Night, Mommy."

"Good night." I kissed his forehead and headed back to the door, ready to sit in my room and think about Fang and be depressed, when there he was, standing in the doorway.

"Hey," he said, looking down at me, his eyes unreadable.

"Hi, Daddy!" Gracie said cheerily, sitting up in bed. "Are you saying goodnight?"

"Yeah." Fang walked over to her, glancing at me as if expecting me to follow, but I didn't. I left and went back to my room.

I didn't get a wink of sleep that night.

0000000000

The next day, there was only one person I could think of to talk to about my latest relationship problem. So I took the cordless phone into my room and called my mom.

"Max?" She sounded panicked, since I'd agreed only to use this phone in emergencies, in case the calls were being tracked. "Max, what's wrong? Is everyone okay? Did--"

"Mom." I cut her off before she had an anxiety attack. "Everything's fine."

"Oh," she said, confused. "Why are you calling, then, honey?"

I sighed, already wishing I hadn't wanted to talk to somebody about this, but made myself say, "It's Fang."

"Fang? Did you two have a fight?"

"No. Worse." I gulped. "He _kissed_ me. Again."

"Again?" asked Mom cautiously. I heard her put something down. "Um, when else did this happen?"

I plopped down on my bed, resting my chin in one hand. "Right before I met you for the second time, and while we were in D.C. for the government meetings. And then last night."

"Hmm," was all she said.

"He's my best friend, Mom!" I said, jumping off my bed. "He shouldn't go around _kissing_ me! Right?"

"Honey," Mom sighed. "This is something you're going to have to figure out on your own. I can't tell you what's best for the both of you. Here's what I do know, though: I saw you on the Valium, and I saw Fang getting worried and protective during that surgery. What conclusions can you draw form that?"

I inwardly groaned. More fortune cookie crap! "Okay. Thanks, Mom."

"Sure, honey. Let me know how it goes."

"I will. Bye, love you."

"Bye. I love you too."

I hung up and let myself wallow in self-pity for a moment more before lifting my chin up and leaving my bedroom, heading out of the girls' room and down the hall to the boys'.

From the living room, I could hear the TV, the flock, and the twins. Fang had been holed up in his room all day, the door closed. Now, as I stood in front of it, I considered backing out of this. One flash of Gracie and Devin's faces in my mind, though, and I knew I had to smooth things over with Fang. They deserved parents who could at least be in the same room with each other.

I knocked on the door. "Fang?"

The flock's conversation stopped downstairs, and I winced. I'd spoken too loud, and now they'd be gathering outside Fang's door. As he opened it and looked out at me, expressionless, I held up one finger and yelled, "Come in this hallway and you die!"

Satisfied with the nervous chuckles I heard, I stepped around Fang and into the room. He shut the door, and I sat down on Iggy's bed. "We need to talk."

He sat down across from me, on his own bed. Our knees were about six inches apart. "Okay."

"I, um… okay, Fang. Look." I put my hands on my knees and looked into his deep, dark eyes. "This, um… you know… was a little more, um, manageable when it was just us and the flock. But now, with the kids, we have to think about the future. Like, post-saving the world future. If we… got together… and broke up, and it got kind of ugly, the kids would have to deal with that for the rest of their lives. I don't want to put them through that."

Fang looked at me, not saying anything. I took a deep breath and went on. "They shouldn't have to deal with going back and worth between two parents who hate each other's guts."

Now he looked at me, his black eyes piercing. "Is that what you think would happen?"

I stared at him. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but that wasn't it. "Huh?"

"Do you really think," he said slowly, getting off his bed and moving onto Iggy's, beside me, "that if something bad happened between us, we'd hate each other?"

I bit my lip. I knew I could never hate Fang, but he _had_ left me before. It seemed plausible that he would do it again. "I don't know."

"Max, I could never hate you," he said quietly, touching my elbow. I instinctively shrunk back. "You're my best friend. And the mother of my children."

I closed my eyes, hoping so much that he wasn't going somewhere with this. If this wasn't Fang, I would be satisfied, even pleased, with what he'd said. But it was Fang, and I had to believe there was something else.

"You're right on one part," he went on. "We have to think about what's good for the kids now. And what's good--"

"No." I snapped my head up to look at him, knowing what he was about to say: that the best thing to do, the most normal thing for the kids, was to get together. And even though part of me knew that I loved him, too, I was sure that if I gave in to my feelings, something would go wrong. "Don't say that. Just don't."

"But--"

"Fang." I looked up at him, as close to begging as I would _ever_ get. "I can't do this right now. Okay?"

He looked at me for a long moment, then slowly nodded. "I'm not letting it go," he said. "But for now, I will."

"Thank you," I said quietly. "That's all I want."

Fang and I were about a foot apart on the bed. As we sat there in silence, he started getting closer, and then I was enveloped in his warm arms.

"Fang," I muttered, face flaming, trying to pull away, but he held me tight.

"Don't worry. We're hugging," he murmured, warm breath right in my ear. "That's all. Just hugging."

**I know you probably hate me for making Max run away… again… but does the tiny cute part at the end compensate?**

**If not… don't worry. The major Faxness is coming.**

**Review!**


	14. Chapter 13

**Sorry about Max running away, heehee. : ) Don't worry, though, you're not gonna have to wait _too_ much longer… and I think you'll like this chapter.**

**Disclaimer: Still don't own.**

"Mommy?"

I shot up in bed at the voice. The first thing I saw was Gracie, kneeling on my bed with tears running down her face. "Honey, what's wrong?"

"I had the dream again," she whispered, crawling closer to me. As her face passed through the strip of moonlight coming in the window, I saw that it was much paler than its usual olive tone. "Only it was _worse_ this time."

"What happened?" I asked, quickly checking to make sure Nudge and Angel were still asleep.

Gracie put her fingers in her mouth. "They chased us down the hall. Trying to hurt us. They, they got Devin, and put the pokey thing in his arm, and…"

"What happened to Devin?" I whispered, my heart pounding as I thought about every bad ending that could possibly finish this dream.

"After they poked him," she began, then started to sob again. Gathering her in my arms, I tried to soothe her while prodding her to keep going. I probably didn't want to know, but I _needed_ to. Finally, Gracie managed, "He stopped moving. And I yelled for him to wake up, but he just _wouldn't_."

My heart dropped into my stomach, my veins becoming ice. "Oh, honey, it was only a dream." I tried to believe it myself but could not.

"Devin had a dream, too," she mumbled, and my blood ran cold again. They'd had the dreams at the exact same time, just like the last ones. Something _was not _right here.

"Is he in your room?" I asked, standing up and bringing her with me. My voice was strong and confident, to my surprise and delight.

"Uh-huh," Gracie said, burying her face in the crook of my neck. I slipped out of my room, closing the door very quietly behind me, and tiptoed to the twins'. From the other side of the slightly ajar door, I could hear quiet sobs.

"Devin?" I called softly, pushing it open. He immediately looked up at me with wide, fearful eyes. "Hey, buddy. What's going on?"

"Dream," he muttered. "Bad dream."

"What was the dream about?" I asked, sitting beside him on his bed. Settling Gracie on my knee and holding her there with one hand, I used the other to stroke Devin's hair.

"They hurt Gracie," he cried. I consciously stopped my jaw from falling open. "They hurt her bad. She wouldn't talk, and I touched her arm and it was really cold."

Oh, no. Oh, man, I didn't know what was going on, but it wasn't good.

I pulled both Gracie and Devin into my arms, trying to comfort myself as much as them. "It's fine, guys. Don't worry. It's fine."

"I want Daddy," said Gracie.

"Me too," said Devin.

I tried not to be offended. I mean, I _had_ pestered Fang about having an actual relationship with the kids. But how could it settle well that my children would rather be comforted by their cold, emotionless father than by me?

"Okay," I said briskly, standing up with a kid on each hip. "Let's go find Daddy."

We went over to the boys' room. I lightly kicked the door open and found Gazzy, Iggy and Fang all conked out on their respective beds. The kids wiggled out of my arms and ran to climb into Fang's bed. As Devin cuddled up to him, he started and woke.

"Devin?" he asked, then saw me. "Max, what's--"

I strode over and bent to whisper in Fang's ear so the kids couldn't hear what I was saying. When he lightly place his hand on the back of my neck while he listened, I almost shivered, but managed to contain myself. Barely. "They had the same dream again," I whispered, and his hand urgently pulled my head closer to his. "They each dreamed about the other dying."

Fang took a sharp intake of breath, and I felt it in my own ear. "So now what?"

I glanced at the kids. Devin had a fistful of Fang's shirt, and Gracie was curled up beside her brother. They appeared to be pretty calmed down, and I really didn't want to mess with two crying kids again. "Let's just go back to bed. We can talk about it first thing tomorrow."

He nodded, and I backed up. "Good night, guys."

"Mommy?" Gracie sat up, staring at me. "Where you going?"

"Back to bed. I'll just be in the next room if you need me." _Since you'd rather be with Mr. Rock than me._

"No, no." Devin waved his hand around lazily. "You come sleep over here."

I raised my eyebrow, looking at the bed. It was an twin-- _maybe_ I could squeeze in beside them, but it'd be hard.

"Yeah." Gracie patted the empty spot beside her. "Right here."

I glanced at Fang. He smiled a little and motioned for me to lay down. Even with all three of them watching me expectantly, though, I hesitated.

"Come on, Mommy, we want to be with Daddy _and_ you," Gracie said, and that's when my heart melted and I went to join them.

Fitting all four of us in that bed proved to be a challenge, and once, with all the noise we were making, we woke up Iggy. In the end, Fang and I were on our sides, and the kids were on their backs between us.

"Okay," I said, exhausted from simply trying to get comfortable. Gracie scooted closer to me. "Now, good _night_, you two."

"'Night," they said. It only took a minute or two for them to fall asleep.

My arm was draped over Gracie, Fang's over Devin. Our hands were just sort of floating next to each other between the kids. Just as I closed my eyes and felt myself slipping into a slumber, Fang took my hand.

My eyes sprang open, and I looked down. He had interlaced our fingers, and his thumb was stroking mine. I raised my gaze to look at him, and he flashed one of his famous half-smiles that made my world spin. "Good night, Max," he whispered, even showing his white teeth for just a second.

"'Night, Fang." I sighed contently, and we fell asleep like that, our hands entwined over _our_ kids, like two people who were meant to be together.

**Aww, family fluff. And foreshadowing. Review, please!**


	15. Chapter 14

**I feel like updating, and so here is an update. FYI, if you read DSOA, I'm behind, and I'm gonna be busy for the next couple days, so that will probably be updated next on Tuesday.**

I awoke the next morning at Gazzy's confused voice. "What are they _doing_?"

"Well," said a tired Iggy from somewhere else in the room, "I would tell you, but I can't _see_ what they're doing. Who is _they_, anyway?"

I twisted around, casting a glance over my shoulder. The Gasman was standing behind me. "Have Iggy make you breakfast."

"What if I don't wanna make him breakfast?" Iggy asked, just to be argumentative. "And why are _you_ in here?"

I looked down at Gracie, then at Devin and Fang: we had awaken all of them with our conversation. "The kids had a bad dream again, and they wanted to stay in here with Fang."

"Whatever," Iggy yawned. "Let's go, Gaz."

They left, and I thought how lucky we were to get out of that without Iggy making a dirty joke. Then I felt some tugging on my arm and realized Fang was still holding my hand, and the kids were crawling out from under our arms. I tried to pull my hand away, but Fang held on to it.

"We're gonna go eat," Gracie said, hopping off the bed.

"Me too," Devin agreed, following her. They toddled out of the room, and I started to get out of bed, but _again_, Fang refused to let go of my hand.

"Fang, what the heck?" I demanded, laying back down because he was forcing me to. "Let me go."

"We have to talk about their dreams," he said.

"Now?"

"That's what you said." Fang shrugged. "You said first thing tomorrow. It's tomorrow, Max."

I scowled, hating that he was using my own words against me but knowing he was right. It wasn't that I didn't want to talk about it, anyway. "Could you at least…" I looked pointedly at our hands, resting between us on the bed.

"No, I like this," he said, smirking at me. And then, to my absolute _horror_, he pulled me closer until we were only about six inches apart on the bed. When I tried to wriggle away, he locked his arm around my waist, holding me to him. "Come on, Max. Can't we just talk about our kids' safety without it having to be a big deal?"

"We _could_," I shot back, "if you would--"

"Okay, cool. So what do you think is going on with them?"

I gave in, relaxing against Fang and even letting my head loll against his chest. He was warm in the otherwise chilled room…

_Shut up, Max, _I scolded myself. _Answer the question. _"I think it's definitely suspicious," I said, speaking into Fang's black shirt. His heartbeat was thudding in my ear, and I found myself leaning closer, wanting to hear it, just to know he was alive. "But I really don't know what to do."

"Well, running's not going to help," he said, holding me even tighter. I wasn't sure what we were doing, why I wasn't pushing him away. Maybe it was too early in the morning for my brain to really process this. But it did register that we were _cuddling_. And I was _enjoying_ it. Imagine that.

"That's what I was thinking," I said. "I guess all we can really do is wait it out." We didn't have a lot of options; we really had to stay in hiding. I didn't like the idea of sitting around, not taking action, but it was the only think to do.

"Okay," Fang said, unwinding his arms from around me, first to my disappointment then to my horror at realizing I was disappointed. "We'll stay here."

0000000000

"Fang? Max?" Nudge's frantic voice floated into the kitchen, where Fang and I were bored out of our minds while we played with our kids. Her footsteps kept pounding down the hall outside, and a moment later, she burst through the door. "Guys, guys, there's this, like, this _thing_--"

"Nudge, calm down," I said, releasing the plastic horse I was holding and standing up. "What's wrong?"

"Go look on TV!" she exclaimed, pointing in that direction, her eyes wide. "It's bad, it's really bad!"

Fang and I exchanged a glance, then he told Nudge to watch Gracie and Devin while we checked out whatever was on TV. We hurried down the hall to the living room and found the rest of the flock there, all intently watching-- or in Iggy's case, listening to-- the five o' clock news.

The first thing I saw was Jeb on the screen, what appeared to be a neighborhood behind him. He had dark bags under his eyes, and he looked exhausted. The second thing I noticed were the words stretching along the bottom of the screen: INFAMOUS BIRD KIDS HAVE GONE MISSING.

"They're such good kids," he was saying, sniffling. "I don't know why anybody would want to hurt them. They may have grown up in a cruel environment, but it was for their own good. I love each of them so much and I'm just praying for their safe return.

"We would like a chance to study the two most successful reproduction experiments the company has ever known. Those two experiments alone could help us breed many more cross-species that would be beneficial to society. We don't want to hurt them, though. We want to help them recreate their lives after all the trouble they've gone through."

"No you don't." I was already seething at the TV by the time I realized I was doing it, but I didn't stop. My rage was wild. I was unable to believe that my own father was on TV, making the fact that he wanted to use my children as _lab rats _sound like a perfectly good cause. "You don't care about us. You only care about your stupid world domination scheme! Cut the crap, Jeb! Stop the fake crying and just _get the hell out _of our lives!"

By the time I finished, angry tears were rolling down my face, and everyone was looking at me-- even Nudge, who had heard the racket and come in from the kitchen. I stood there, breathing heavily, clenching and unclenching my fists, afraid that if I didn't somehow keep my hands occupied, I'd punch something.

Jeb was off the screen now, the newscast moving on to that weekend's weather. The flock seemed afraid to speak, as if one syllable would make me explode again. It might have, too, had Fang not come up behind me and gently took my hand in his.

"Let's go play with the kids," he murmured. I must not have looked much calmer, because he squeezed my hand and started to lead me away from the living room. "Calm down, Max," he said all the way down the hall. "Relax. Just relax."

"How can you tell me to relax?" I snapped, stopping outside the kitchen door. Nobody had followed us back here-- with good reason, too. "Did you not see that? Can you _believe_ him?"

"No, I can't," Fang said, gently taking hold of my shoulders and looking me in the eyes. "I don't trust him either, Max. But we're safe here. They've been searching for a good few weeks now, and they haven't found us. Just because you saw him on the news doesn't mean they're going to."

"I know that," I said, slouching under his firm hands. "I'm just so mad at Jeb. I sort of lost it."

"I saw that." Fang smirked, and I hit him in the chest. "Okay, okay. Seriously, though, don't worry about it. Okay?"

"You're talking to me like I'm one of the kids," I griped, narrowing my eyes at him.

"That's because you gotta do this," he said, shaking me a little. "Forget it and let's go play with our kids."

First, I felt better, and then I had the biggest realization of my life: I did love Fang, the way Angel said he loved me. I cared about him in a way I couldn't really describe, because he was the only person in my entire screwed up life who had been there for fourteen years, who always knew just what I needed, who really would be my best friend forever. But I loved him as more than that, more than a best friend. We _were_ meant to be together, just like those two people who had held hands as they embraced their children.

"Okay," I said, the smile I gave him having more happiness to it than it had in, like, ever. "I'm fine. Let's go."

**I hope everyone had a good Christmas! Reviews are a great late Christmas present… : D**


	16. Chapter 15

**Oh my.**

**I'm so excited about this chapter.**

**Teeheehee.**

"Mommy," Devin giggled, grabbing the cow from me. "You're not doing it right!"

"Oh, I'm not?" I asked, mock-concerned. "What am I doing wrong?"

"That goes _here_," Gracie said, taking the toy from her brother and putting it next to the horse. "And _this_…" She picked up a little pink piglet. "Goes _here_."

I raised my eyebrows at Fang, and he nodded slightly, showing he had the same thought. That is, how the heck could little kids think this was _fun_?

"Daddy, take the toy daddy," Gracie ordered, handing Fang the plastic farmer. "And Mommy, you take the toy mommy."

I looked down at the little plastic figure she had shoved into my hands. It was a woman in a long pink dress. As if _I_ would ever wear something like that.

"Now," my daughter said, sitting back on her heels. "You have to make the toy mommy and daddy kiss. Because that's what mommies and daddies do."

"What?" I asked, my brain working hard to remember when she could have picked up on that little fact. "Mommies and daddies don't kiss, Gracie. Me and your daddy have _never_ done that."

Okay, so, we had. More than once. And I had even enjoyed it. But she didn't need to know that.

"Angel said that's what they do, and she said you two will sometime, too," she said confidently. "Now, make the toys kiss."

Fang looked over at me and smirked. "Yeah, Mommy. Let's make the toys kiss."

I glared at him. "Pig."

"No, _this_ is the pig," Devin said in all seriousness, holding up the little plastic one. "You _kiss_."

Upon my continued reluctance, Fang grabbed the farmer's wife from my hand and pressed its face against the farmer's. This only lasted a second, but in that second I was completely amused, shocked and mesmerized by the sight of _Fang_ making _dolls kiss_. That was just… the _last_ thing I ever expected to see from him.

"There," said Fang, looking up at the kids and smiling. "The mommy and daddy kissed."

"Now you do it," Gracie said, crawling a little closer to where Fang and I were sitting. "I wanna see you kiss."

"No you don't, honey," I said.

Fang nudged me, and maybe it was the look in his eye-- the one that reminded me, _again_, that our children were being deprived of a normal childhood and should have every slight piece we could offer them, even if that piece was seeing their parents kiss. Maybe it wasn't the look in his eye, though. Maybe it was what I had realized only a few minutes earlier-- that I did love Fang. And I did want this.

Reading my expression, knowing I was ready, Fang took my face in his hands and stared into my eyes. Then, slowly stroking my cheeks, he leaned in and kissed me.

I kissed him back.

It was a grand total of five seconds, but it felt like I had spent forever in that moment, sitting in the kitchen floor, surrounded by a plastic farm, kissing Fang. When we pulled back, we kept eye contact, Fang still cupping my face.

"There you go, Gracie," he whispered, using her name but looking at me. "That's how Mommy and Daddy kiss."

0000000000

That night, after we put the kids to bed, Fang stopped me before I could hurry to my bedroom. I had felt all awkward after the kiss and looked forward to when I could go to bed and not have to talk to him anymore, but he grabbed my wrist as I started to head off.

"Hey," he said, stepping close, to within a foot of me. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," I said, swallowing. I was; I had kissed Fang back, I hadn't run away. I had admitted to myself I loved him. It was still a lot, though. A lot of emotions in a time of a lot of stress. And I felt like we couldn't _really_ begin an actual relationship until I made the first move, showing my acceptance of it. **(A/N: Remember, this is post-MAX but written as if they never kissed in that book.)**

"How do you… you know." He stepped ever closer, and I gulped again. "Are you… okay with earlier?"

"What happened earlier?" I asked, playing dumb. Of course, this isn't a good game to play with someone who knows you inside and out-- Fang knew that I knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Max," he sighed. "Why can't you talk to me about any of this?"

"_You_ talk to _me_," I said, crossing my arms and throwing my weight onto one leg. "Tell me what you think I need to hear, and I'll tell you what I have to say."

"Okay…" Fang's hand loosened around my wrist and slipped into mine, our fingers lacing together like they had just last night. "I love you, Max."

My heart skipped a beat, and for a moment I was stricken, staring up at Fang. His face remained stoic as he awaited his answer, but I could tell he was expecting a rejection by the way his breathing suddenly got deeper.

That was when I decided to give him something else. I'd been enough of an idiot for enough time; I didn't want to break Fang's, or my, heart again. All the awkwardness and tension between us was my fault because of my inability to deal with my feelings.

That was going to change. Right now.

Instead of answering, I launched myself at Fang, winding my arms tightly around his neck and kissing him like he was my only source of oxygen. He grunted in surprise at the sudden weight of me pressed against him, but recovered and started kissing me back.

My hands were tangled in his shaggy hair, his around my waist. Our lips were moving together in a way that felt fast and slow and amazing at the same time. One of Fang's hands moved up my back and then caught a lock of hair in its fingers, holding it gently.

Finally, we needed air, so I pulled away, breathing hard. Fang closed his eyes, a small smile plastered on his face, and rested his forehead against mine. I smiled too and wrapped my arms around his waist, loving every second of this.

"Max?"

"Hmm?"

"Are we together now?"

I looked up to find that he had opened his eyes and was watching me carefully. After only one quick second of thought, I nodded. "I guess we are…"

"Good." Fang moved one wayward stand of hair behind my ear and then left his hand there, looking at me, waiting for something. I knew what it was, too, and I wasn't about to back away. Not now. We were together, we were well, we were ready for this. At long last, _I_ was ready for this.

So I opened my mouth, ready to take the final step, seal this once and for all. "I l--"

**Ooh, cliffy, haha. Review?**


	17. Chapter 16

**Aren't I such a nice fan fiction author, updating sooner than I usually would because of that cliffy?**

**Yes. Yes I am. : D**

**Here we go!**

The sound of shattering glass-- from the twins' room-- cut me off, and then Gracie started screaming at the top of her little lungs. I whirled out of Fang's arms, switching from Mushy Max to Battle Max, and burst through the door to find Gracie already out of bed, still crying and yelling. As she rushed toward me, I held my arms out and scooped her up.

Fang hurried past me, to Devin, who was cowering in his bed. He picked him up, having to pry his tiny hands away from the blankets he was clutching, and brought him back over to me. I placed Devin on my other hip and kissed both the kids' heads, trying to soothe them as they continued to sob.

"What's going on?" asked Iggy, coming in behind us with the rest of the flock in tow. "That was some crash."

"We don't know," I told him, locking eyes with Fang as I started to bounce the kids on my hips. He cautiously walked toward the window, kneeling down to examine the glass littering the floor. I took a step closer, but he held up his hand, motioning for me to stop.

He looked… worried. Scared. Two emotions that Fang _never_ showed, no matter what.

"What is it?" I asked softly, barely heard over the cries of the twins.

Fang stood and walked back over to me, something in his hand. I furrowed my brow and gave him Gracie, then Devin, and then took the object.

It was a rock, I realized as I looked at it. And there was twine around it, holding a piece of paper against the rock. With a shaking hand, I carefully pulled out one end of the string. It fell off, and I unfolded the paper.

_Listen._

That was all it said. One word. _Listen. _Listen to _what_?

_Me._

I gasped in spite of myself, and the whole flock stared at me. Nudge edged closer, touching my arm. "Max? Are you okay?"

"What does it say?" asked Angel, trying to peek over my shoulder, but I quickly scrunched the paper up in my hand.

"Nothing," I said, working to keep my voice steady. "It doesn't say anything. Guys, go to bed. It's okay."

"Shouldn't someone take watch?" Iggy asked.

"I'll do it," I said, ushering them toward the door. The quicker they got out of here, the quicker I could talk to the Voice and do whatever it was I needed to do. "And, um, Nudge and Angel, go in the boys' room. I'll be in ours with the light on for a while. 'Night."

The flock left reluctantly, leaving me with Fang and the twins. I could tell he didn't believe me about the paper, but he didn't say anything. I usually would have told him right away, but I needed to figure out what was up with the Voice before anything else. So I looked at Fang and said, "Can you tuck them back in? I'm, um, going to get ready for bed."

"I don't wanna be tucked in," Gracie wailed, clinging to Fang's neck.

"Can't we sleep with you?" asked Devin, the tear tracks still evident on his face.

"Yeah," Fang told him. He looked up at me. "You coming?"

I nodded, though I wasn't quite sure what I'd be doing. "Yeah. Just give me a minute."

I left the room, going down to mine. As soon as I was in, with the door locked behind me, I told the Voice, _Okay. I'm listening._

_They know where you are, _it said.

_No dip, Sherlock, _I thought back irritably. _They just vandalized my kids' room. Tell me what to do. No fortune cookie crap, either. I mean it._

I think the Voice sighed. _Fine. Well, Maximum, you're aware of the School's intense search for your children._

_Yes,_ I thought, reaching down for my bag and starting to pack. I just had that gut feeling that I'd be needing it.

_While they are interested in the ability of their experiments to reproduce, the children were created with your motherly instincts in mind. If the opportunity presented itself, they planned to use the kids to lure you to the School._

I stopped in the middle of stuffing a shirt in my bag. _They're just after me?_

_Yes. They want you dead, Maximum, and they figured that was the best way. They don't see Gracie and Devin as important enough to spare, so they're basically being used as bait. The dreams they've been having? That's the School threatening the children. They will try to capture them if they can't capture you._

Anger filled me. I couldn't believe people-- people! Supposed human beings with supposed hearts!-- would use a child like that in order to kill another child. I quickly shook the thought, forcing down my fury for now and getting back to the information. _So if I leave and go to the School…?_

_Everybody will be safe._

I swallowed the growing lump in my throat. I didn't want to leave the flock or my children, especially not now that I'd accepted Fang, but it was for their own good. As their leader, their mother, and their best friend, I had to.

_You may not come back alive._ The Voice supplied the obvious, and I scowled. _But there is a chance you will. At the School, there is a person who has engineered this whole project over the last three years. Destroy that person, Max, and you destroy the heart of the School. And you and your family will be able to live freely once and for all._

_Is it Jeb? _I asked, really hoping it was.

_No. I'll tell you when you get to the School. For now, though, just focus on getting there. You won't hear from me again until you're there. Good luck, Max._

And then the Voice was gone.

I quickly finished packing and grabbed my windbreaker, tucking it under my arm. Before I left the room, I made sure nobody was in the hall, and when the coast was clear, I tiptoed down to the boys' room.

Watching my sleeping family-- Iggy and Gazzy in their beds, Nudge and Angel sprawled on the floor, and, finally, Fang and our kids in his bed, I felt tears prick the backs of my eyes. I blinked them away, though, and set to work finding a scratch piece of paper and a pencil.

I found it and quickly wrote something down, folded it in half, and slipped it onto Fang's bedside table. Then I knelt beside the girls.

"I love you," I whispered to them, kissing both their foreheads. They stirred but didn't wake, and I did the same with Iggy and Gazzy. Then I turned to Fang and my kids.

I kissed Gracie and Devin, murmuring, "Mommy loves you."

"Max?" Fang blinked, awake at just the wisp of my voice. "What're you doing?"

"Going to take watch," I said, forcing myself to look him in the eye and lie. It was hard, but I managed. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Aren't you going to wake me up in a few hours?" he asked.

"Oh," I said. "Sure." And then, acting on impulse like I had earlier, I leaned over and kissed him. "Goodnight."

He said the same to me, and I walked out of the room, trying desperately not to cry. What Fang didn't know yet was that by 'goodnight,' I was saying 'goodbye.' And 'I love you'… the words I had started to say, but hadn't been able to get out. Now there was a chance I never would.

_Tough it out, Max,_ I told myself as I stepped out on the porch, shutting the door very, very quietly behind me. _This is for your family._

With that thought in my mind, I took off.

**Aww. Sad.**

**Review?**


	18. Chapter 17

**Hey, guys. If you read Dark Side of Antarctica, you know that I'm sick. So I'm not really writing right now, but I'm gonna post this for you guys.**

**On DSOA, I wrote that I am not obsessed with Maximum Ride any more (that's how it goes with me; I'm obsessed with a show, book, movie, whatever for anywhere from two weeks to several months, then I find something else and boom, it's just gone. Kinda strange.), but I was going to finish the story for the readers. I forgot to mention that here, and someone who reads DSOA asked if I would finish this one, too. The answer is yes. In fact… this story has a sequel.**

Fang woke with a start, the sunlight filling his eyes. He tried to sit up but stopped when he felt a tug on his shirt. When he looked down, he saw Devin looking up at him with his big black eyes and felt the familiar yet peculiar rush of affection. "Hey, buddy."

"Are you going away?" he asked, tears welling in his eyes.

"No," Fang said, quickly putting an arm around the boy. "I'm not going anywhere. Come on, don't cry."

The fact that Fang was cooing reassurances to a small child felt odd enough to him; he'd been careful not to act that way around--

Max.

Where was she? He looked around, only now realizing that she hadn't waken him up for watch. It was morning-- probably about eight. Even if Max had stayed up all night on watch, she would have come laid down with him and the kids by now.

A feeling of dread settled in Fang's chest. Something was very, very wrong here.

"Here," he whispered, gently nudging Devin off him. "I'm going to find Mommy, okay? I'll be right back. You two stay here."

Fang watched Devin cuddle up to Gracie, who was still sound asleep, before standing up. Before he headed out the door, though, he saw a flash of white out of the corner of his eye. When he looked over and picked it up, he saw it was a piece of paper with Max's messy handwriting on it, spelling out his name.

Oh, man.

With a shaking hand, he unfolded the paper and took in what he saw: less than half a page of words. At the bottom, it was signed, _Love, Max_.

For Max to sign anything with _love_, or to write a letter in the first place, something really bad had to be going on, Fang knew. With one big swallow, he started to read.

_Fang,_

_I had to leave. Details aren't important, just know that because I left, you, the kids and the flock are safe. Stay there. They're not coming back for you._

_You have to take care of everyone. It's your job now. And be the kids' dad, okay? They can't have their mom; they need you twice as much._

_Love,_

_Max_

Fang finished the letter and stared at the white blankness under Max's signature. He kept expecting more, but there was nothing else. This was the last thing he had of Max. Only these fifty or so words.

How could she, the person he would have died for, the one he loved with all his heart, leave him with just this stupid note to remember her by? Even if it was to protect them. Wherever she was, whoever she was fighting, he should be by her side, with her until the very end.

He had promised her that.

"Daddy?"

Fang looked down at Devin, who was standing up on the bed. Behind him, Gracie was sitting up, rubbing her eyes. "Yeah?"

"Did you find Mommy yet?" he asked, bouncing a little. Gracie stood up beside him, smiling and holding out her arms for her father to pick her up. Looking at them, the way they loved and trusted him, Fang's heart broke in half. They were so childlike and carefree in that moment, expecting their mother to come in the doorway any second. How could he possibly tell them they might never see her again?

"I didn't find Mommy," he said quietly, reaching out and drawing both of them into his arms like he'd seen Max do. "I don't know if I can find her."

"You lost Mommy?" Devin asked loudly. Over the kids' shoulders, Fang saw the rest of the flock stirring, starting to blink at the light filling their pupils. Before long, he'd have to tell them, too, and that might be even harder.

Although, as he looked into his son's worried, scared, accusative eyes, he decided that telling these two was pretty bad.

"Yes," he said, trying desperately to keep his voice from breaking, watching the kids' faces crumple. "I lost Mommy."

**This was hard. Fang is always with the kids **_**and**_** Max, not very often alone with the kids, and Max is usually the one who gives the hugs and kisses and comfort. I think I pulled it off, though.**

**Thoughts?**


	19. Chapter 18

I hovered in the air outside the School, using my raptor vision to try and locate an entrance. Nothing seemed to be available, though.

_Go down and east thirty degrees, _the Voice said.

_Is this a trap?_ I asked half-jokingly. I'd followed its advice this far; might as well keep going with it.

The Voice didn't answer. I scowled but angled down and followed the directions it had given me. Sure enough, a minute or so later, I saw a wide open window and cocked an eyebrow. _These people don't just happen to leave windows open._

_I took care of it,_ the Voice said helpfully. _Just get in there._

At first, I hesitated, but then remembered why I was doing this. For the flock. For my kids. And for Fang.

With that last thought, I tucked my wings in and dove through the window, landing gracefully on the floor inside. As I tucked my wings in and looked around to get my bearings, I realized that I recognized this room. I figured it was just because all the rooms in the School looked the same… until I saw the empty cage at the other end of the room.

This was where Gracie and Devin had been kept. Where I'd found them. Where Fang and I became parents… where everything started to change for the better between us.

As I felt a lump beginning to rise in my throat, I made my way over to the cage, ignoring all the other mutants' fearful eyes on me. I knelt before the cage, reaching out and running my fingers over the label that was still there: _Subjects Six and Seven._

_Okay, Maximum. _The Voice interrupted my dramatic rediscovering of the place I'd met my children. _Time to get on track. Go to the top floor._

_Using what, the stairs? _I thought back sarcastically. _They'll see me. How am I supposed to get there?_

_The stairs_, the Voice said, as if that wasn't a totally stupid idea. _Don't worry, you won't be found. Not until you come across the man you need to destroy._

I rolled my eyes and started to a door sort of hidden behind a larger cage, one I knew led to the stairs. When I stepped inside, I quickly counted the flights of stairs to the top: only two. Whoever it was I had to destroy was closer than I thought.

I padded softly up the stairs, trying not to be heard. With every step, I expected an alarm to start blaring, but it never did. The staircase remained deathly quiet.

When I arrived at the landing, I heard a typewriter on the other side of the door. Somebody's office.

_Good job, Maximum, _the Voice said. _You're where you need to be. Destroy the person behind that door, and the School will be over, your pain will be over… you can be free. I'll leave you now._

And then it was gone.

I took a deep breath and lay my hand on the doorknob. The next few minutes would decide whether I lived or died. And in large part, it all depended on who I saw when I opened that door.

"Who's there?"

The voice was so sudden I jumped, then realized it was a familiar one. Curiosity overrode my fear, and I pushed the door open.

"Oh, man," I said when I saw who was standing behind the desk, eyes narrowed at me. "Look who it is. Our favorite evil Asian man."

Mr. Chu laughed humorlessly, coming around the desk. "Maximum Ride."

"That's my name, don't wear it out," I told him, crossing my arms. I was searching the room for weapons (there were practically none) and exits (one large window). "So look. What do you want from me?"

"That's simple," he said, taking one step closer. "Your life."

I glared at him, the adrenaline starting to pump through my veins, readying myself for a fight. I thought about everything this guy had done to me-- kidnapped my mother, created my children in test tubs to be used for bait, taking me away from my flock and family-- and suddenly had the uncontrollable desire to, as the Voice had said, _destroy_ him.

I charged, fists flailing, trying to punch out Mr. Chu. He dodged me, backing up against a wall and smacking a flashing red button there. Two ceiling tiles slid apart, and five M-Geeks came storming out.

My hands snapped up defensively as they came down on me, knocking me to the floor. I heard Mr. Chu's cruel laughter, barely, over the droning of the M-Geeks as I punched and kicked them away from me. It was hard, and more than once I wished I would just die already. Slowly but surely, though, I fought the five M-Geeks off until they were all laying in pieces in Mr. Chu's office.

By now, an alarm was blaring, and Mr. Chu kept glancing at the door, obviously expecting reinforcement to arrive at any time. I knew I didn't have much time. I rushed at him, grabbing his throat and pinning him to the wall.

"I'll make this quick," I growled.

_Max, you're not a killer,_ the Voice said.

I stopped squeezing his neck as the Voice repeated what it had said when I'd been about to finish off Marian Janssen. It was right. I _wasn't_ a killer. I had to do what was best for my family, though…

"Listen," I told Mr. Chu. "Here's what's going down. I let you go. You leave us alone. If I hear from you again, or if you threaten us again, I _will_ come back here and kill you. Got it?"

Mr. Chu nodded stiffly, and I tightened my hold on his neck. "Say it out loud."

"I understand," he choked out. "I will not bother you or your flock any more."

"Or my kids. Say it," I demanded.

He hesitated, and I pressed him harder against the wall. "I won't bother your kids," he finally said.

"Good." I drew my hand back, and Mr. Chu dropped to the floor, his face red from lack of oxygen. "Now stick to that."

With those parting words, I threw open the large window, unfurled my wings, and leaped out of it. The wind caught in my wings like sails and then lifted me up, up, far above the ground.

_You understand the School isn't destroyed, Max,_ the Voice said. _You didn't destroy Mr. Chu._

_I understand, _I thought back, looking at the mountains on the horizon as I headed toward them. _I saved my family for now, though. I can deal with anything else as it comes up._

The Voice didn't reply, and I smiled as I stroked powerfully, watching everything below me become mere specks. Everything was perfect, everything was fine. Me and the flock and Fang and our kids were going to live in peace. For a while, anyway.

For now, that was all I needed.

**Okay, so, this was an action scene, which I don't particularly like writing… and I don't think I'm very good at them… but I tried my best.**

**Next chapter, guys, is the LAST! Ahhhh!**

**Review!**


	20. Chapter 19

**Oh.**

**My.**

**Gosh.**

**This is seriously the last chapter.**

**I can't believe it.**

**And guess what else?**

**I'm almost done writing the sequel.**

**Boo-yah!**

**So read, enjoy, soak it up-- but know it's not over, not just yet.**

The first thing I saw, as the mountain house came into view, was the flock, hanging around in the yard. As I got closer, I saw that Fang was sitting on the front steps and the flock was playing with my kids. I smiled to myself, feeling my heart blow up with pride. Surely Fang had told them I was gone, and here they were, trying to distract my kids from it.

I landed quietly, ten feet away from the others, and stood silently, waiting to see who would notice me first. I expected Fang to-- he was always on guard, letting nothing get by him-- but he was staring at the ground with his head in his hands.

"Max!"

My eyes snapped away from Fang to the flock, and I saw the three younger kids rushing toward me with Iggy trailing behind them. I grinned and came forward, holding my arms out.

Nudge jumped at me from the front, squealing, Angel wound her arms around my waist, and Gazzy hugged my neck from the back. I held them close, fighting back tears.

"You were gone, and Fang has hardly spoken all day, well, even less than usual, and we were so scared, Max!"

"I know, Nudge," I said, smoothing down her wild hair. "It's okay."

"Hey," Iggy said, coming up and wrapping his arms around me quickly. "Where _were_ you?"

"Details later," I told him, lightly squeezing his arm. The flock disentangled themselves from me, and I could see the yard again. First I saw my kids toddling over to me, and then I looked behind them and saw Fang, slowly standing up, his face incredulous.

"Mommy!" Gracie said, grabbing my leg. I knelt down to hug her, extending my other arm for Devin to run into. "Daddy said he lost you."

"Did he?" I asked, glancing at Fang again. He was walking toward us stiffly. _Please forgive me,_ I thought. _Please forgive me._

"Yeah, and he was sad," Devin said, burying his face in my neck. "He said he'd go find you, but then he couldn't."

Now a tear did creep down my face. I hated having to do this to my kids, my flock, Fang. I'd hurt them. What if I hadn't come home? Would they have been alright?"

Sniffling, I gently pried the kids off of me and stood up, locking eyes with Fang. We were about four feet apart, neither of us making a move to come forward. Finally, I asked, "Are you mad at me?"

For a moment, I thought he was going to say yes, and my heart sank. But then he shook his head, very slightly, and said, "I know you had to do it."

That was all I needed. To know he understood me through and through, just like always. I closed the distance between us and hugged Fang tightly, now starting to really cry. He cradled my head in his hand, stroking my hair and kissing it, his other arm in a deadlock around my waist.

"I was scared," he whispered in my ear.

I don't think I'd ever heard Fang say those three words in the same sentence. The fact that he'd admitted it showed that he really was. So I held him even tighter, whispering back, "I'm sorry."

"I was afraid you'd never come back," he went on. "And I was afraid of being a leader. And of being a dad alone. I can't do it without you, Max. I can't do _anything _without you."

I raised my head to look at him, taking in the tears in his eyes. This was Fang's most emotional display in-- well, _ever_. It was time to match it. "Well, you don't have to," I said, and kissed him.

The kiss was nothing short of _amazing_, joining us in a way I knew would never be broken. We stood in the yard, the autumn breeze whipping around us, kissing and holding each other like our lives depended on it. When we finally broke apart, though reluctantly, I swiped the hair out of Fang's eyes and finished what I'd started to say the previous night. "I love you, too."

He grinned, one of those rare ones, and pulled me in for another kiss. The flock was laughing happily, Gracie and Devin had wrapped their arms around my legs, and I was with the person I loved more than anything in the world.

There really was a Fang and I.

A me and him.

We had become a you and me.

**Ta-da!**

**I'll put the sequel up in a few days. Not sure when quite yet. Soon, though. It's called Always You and Me.**

**Thanks, guys, for reading. Love you all! : )**

**One last review for this story? It'd mean a lot to me. : )**


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